Working to meet our customers needs through innovative scale technology and design, Arlyn Scales has been a leader in weight measurement solutions for over thirty years. We manufacture our scales in our factory in Long Island, New York, which allows us to ship factory direct to you, which means you save money. Some of the savings this provides also go into creating high quality scales that can’t be beat, even at retail price, by the competition.
Today’s scales have to be reliable and precisely accurate. Should a miscalculation occur, say in a medical or scientific environment, the outcome could be catastrophic. Even in situations where it’s not, your business could be losing money or customers due to inaccurate scale measurements.
Modern business continues to have a growing need for precision weighing instruments. Whether your business formulates petrochemical products or weighs jittery livestock, you expect your scale to produce an accurate weight measurement. You also do not want to have to buy a scale every six months due to it breaking or losing its accuracy. Thanks to emerging technology, you have three major options; Strain Gage, Force Motor, and Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology.
Strain Gage and Force Motor technology are the two major technologies currently offered by the scale industry. While they have proven to provide accurate readings over the years, both of them have issues with either fragility or pricing. Arlyn Scales has developed SAW technology as a superior technology to solve these issues.
Strain Gage Scale Technology
Strain Gage scales are considered to be the industry standard and have been so for about sixty years. They are the least expensive, which accounts for their widespread use. They have a resolution of around 1:5000 (1 part in 5,000). With premium strain gage scales, resolution can be increased to 1:10,000. Despite increases in resolution due to newer electronics and other methods, actual accuracy is still not enough for some applications.
Scales primary components are load cells. A load cell is a piece of metal that’s machined and resembles a diving board. It’s attached to the bottom of the scale’s platform and the bottom of the scale. Placing a weight on the platform bends the load cell. The force and stress on the load cell becomes an electronic signal that the scale translates into a weight measurement.
These load cells are generally made out of aluminum to keep the metal thin enough to create an accurate measurement. The problem with this is that dropping a load from a height (shock loading) or putting a load beyond the scales capacity (overloading), can damage the scale, resulting in less and less accurate readings or no readings at all if the load cells break. Therefore, the money you save when purchasing may have to be used to repair the scale while it’s out of use. Arlyn Scales machines our strain gage load cells out of stainless steel for our premium strain gage scales and this increases durability and the scales life span.
Force Motor Scale Technology
Force Motor Scales were the solution to the issue of lack of high resolution and accuracy seen in strain gage scales. These scales use a principle of electromagnetic force opposing the weight placed on the scale platform. This force measurement results in creating extremely high resolution as well as accuracy. The range is typically between 1:50,000 to 1:150,000, but can go higher. Why didn’t these scales replace Strain Gage scales? Well, one problem is that this scale is more sensitive to temperature than Strain Gage scales. This sensitivity resulted in drifts of accurate weight measurement. It also has a reliable maximum working capacity of less than 50 lb. After that capacity, this technology becomes impractical. The final problem is that these scales cost up to 10 times the cost of a strain gage scale.
SAW Scale Technology
Arlyn created our internationally patented Ultra Precision line of scales using SAW technology, which closely resembles what’s used to make semiconductor integrated circuits. These scales produce very precise measurements at extremely high resolutions and capacities. Resolution and accuracy are higher than the force motor scales, at around 1:100,000 to 1:200,000. The SAW scales also do not have the temperature problem the force motor scales do. The cost is also much lower, topping out somewhere in the high range of strain gage scale prices.
Because our SAW load cells measure displacement, rather than stress or strain, the amount of bending required of the load cell is far less than its strain gage counterpart. This means the SAW load cell is thicker and able to take more precise measurements at a much finer resolution and higher capacity with little of the wear and tear associated with strain gage load cells. Unlike force motor scales, which top out at 50 pounds, our Ultra Precision scales have capacities ranging from 10 pounds to 500 pounds.
Our Ultra Precision line of scales are priced at about one-third what you would pay for a force motor scale, even though our technology and craftsmanship is superior.
Individual Scale Tailoring
While we believe our various scale models meet a high degree of our customer’s needs, there’s always the need for a more custom solution. Whether the scale needs to fit in with existing equipment or requires a custom platform size, we’re able to design and manufacture a solution to virtually any challenging situation.
Helping You Scale to New Heights
We have worked hard to create new technology to help you be the best in your business. However, technology is only one part of what we offer. We believe that technology can’t compensate for poor customer service. We hire only the best customer service representatives to help serve our expanding customer base. Get in touch with one today and let them answer your questions and guide you to the scale that best suits your needs.
Contact us by phone at (800) 645-4301 or use the form on our Contact Us page. We’re standing by to help you!
