Knowledge base: weighing, verification and calibration explained

Answers to the questions we get on the phone every day, written down so you can also read them at eleven at night. Every page points on to the scales or the service it is about.

Choosing

• Which scale do I need?
  Five questions that determine which professional scale suits your work: how heavy, how fine, verified or not, which environment and which form. With the category.
• Which industrial scale suits your application?
  A guide by workplace: which scale fits in the warehouse, on the production line, in the cold store, in the shop or outdoors. With the category and the requirements.
• Features and functions of industrial scales: what to look for
  Capacity, readability, IP rating, material, verification and interfaces: the features and functions that make the difference in an industrial scale.
• Pallet scale or floor scale: which suits you?
  U-shaped pallet scale, weigh beams, pallet truck scale or floor scale: what they weigh, how they fit in the space and when to choose which.
• Mobile weighing: weighing without stopping your flow of goods
  Mobile weighing without an extra handling step: pallet trucks with weighing systems, forklift weighing systems and fixed scales compared, with accuracy, verification and a worked example.
• Marine scales: reliable weighing on a moving ship
  Find out how marine scales compensate for swell, which capacity and stainless steel version you need, and how to weigh reliably at sea.

Working with the scale

• What is tare and how does taring work on a scale?
  What is tare? Read the difference between gross, net and tare, how the tare function works and when manual, preset or automatic tare is useful.
• Why does my scale deviate?
  Is your scale showing a wrong or fluctuating weight? Ten causes, the checks you can do yourself, and when calibration or repair is needed.
• Scale maintenance and cleaning: how to prevent deviations and faults
  How do you maintain and clean a professional scale? A practical guide to cleaning, overloading, cables, water, check weights, calibration and maintenance.
• What accuracy and capacity do I need?
  Readability, verification scale interval, capacity and measurement uncertainty: what the numbers on a scale mean and how to choose them for your smallest and heaviest weighing.

Process and automation

• Filling and dosing by weight: how does a weighing system work?
  How does filling by weight work? Read about coarse and fine dosing, setpoints, weighing indicators, PLC connection, overfilling and accurate batch and filling processes.
• Connecting a scale to a PC, PLC or ERP: RS-232, USB, Ethernet, WiFi and I/O explained
  Connecting a scale to a PC, PLC, printer or ERP? Read the difference between RS-232, RS-485, USB, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, digital I/O and analogue signals.
• Checkweighing in production: min, max and recording
  How to accept or reject with a checkweighing scale: setting limits, choosing the right tolerance, recording tare and logging or forwarding the result.
• Weighing and labelling prepacked food
  From weight to label: which scale prints the label, when it needs to be verified, what belongs on the label and how to keep the records.

Laboratory and quality control

• How does a moisture analyser work? Measuring moisture content with a moisture balance
  How does a moisture analyser work? Read how moisture analysis by loss on drying works, how to choose sample, temperature and switch-off criterion, and how to get reliable results.
• Precision balance or analytical balance: what is the difference?
  An analytical balance reads to 0.1 mg or finer and has a draught shield; a precision balance reads to 1 mg to 0.1 g and weighs up to a few kilos. Which one to choose.
• OIML classes explained: scales and weights
  What the OIML classes mean: Class I to IIII for scales and E1 to M3 for check weights, and which weight goes with which scale.
• What does a calibration certificate contain?
  What a scale calibration certificate must contain, the difference between an ISO certificate and a DAkkS or RvA certificate, and what EURAMET cg-18 requires.

Industry and safety

• Which IP rating does my scale need? IP54, IP65, IP66, IP67 and IP68 explained
  Which IP rating does your scale need? Read the difference between IP54, IP65, IP66, IP67, IP68 and IP69K and choose the right protection against dust and water.
• What is an ATEX scale? Zones 0, 1, 2, 20, 21 and 22 explained
  What is an ATEX scale? Read the difference between ATEX zones 0, 1, 2, 20, 21 and 22 and what to look for when weighing in potentially explosive atmospheres.
• Stainless steel scales for wet and hygienic areas: 304 or 316, cleaning and verification
  When do you choose a stainless steel scale, when 316 stainless instead of 304, and how do you clean it without damage? With the scales for wet and hygienic work.

Verification, calibration and the law

• Verification or calibration: what is the difference?
  Verification is a legal inspection with the green M mark; calibration is measuring and recording how much a scale deviates. When you need which, and what adjustment is.
• What is a verified scale? The green M mark explained
  A verified scale carries the green M mark and may be used for selling by weight, medical weighing and the pharmacy. What class, Max, Min, e and d mean.
• Legal-for-trade rules and your scale
  What the law requires of a scale used in trade, healthcare and the pharmacy, who oversees it and what has to happen after a repair.
• How often should a scale be calibrated?
  No law prescribes a calibration interval; your quality system does. What the interval depends on, how to check in between yourself and when it must be sooner.
• The e-mark on prepackages: the three rules
  What the e-mark means, the three rules of the average quantity system, which scale you need and what you must be able to show at an inspection.
• Which force gauge should you choose? Measuring range, resolution and SAUTER FM/FH explained
  Which force gauge suits your tensile or compression test? About newtons, measuring range, readability, measurement error and an internal or external load cell.
• Measuring tensile and compressive force reliably with a SAUTER force test stand
  How to set up a repeatable tensile or compression test: the right force gauge, alignment, grips, test stand, zeroing and recording.
• Peak value, force–time or force–displacement: which recording do you need?
  Measuring peak force, force–time or force–displacement? When a SAUTER FH is enough and when you need AFH FAST, AFH LD and a displacement measurement.

What we do for you

• Scale service: calibration, repair, maintenance and re-verification
  Scale service across the Netherlands: maintenance, repair, calibration and re-verification. On site or in our workshop, authorised by the manufacturer.
• Scale re-verification
  Re-verification of KERN, Adam, OHAUS, Baxtran and Gram scales, arranged through the manufacturer - also for older models we no longer sell ourselves.
• Scale calibration with certificate
  Calibration of scales and balances with a certificate, on site or in our workshop. For ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP. Also for instruments you bought elsewhere.
• Scale repair and maintenance
  Repair and maintenance of KERN, Adam, OHAUS, Baxtran and Gram scales, with original parts. After a repair, re-verification of a verified instrument is arranged through the manufacturer.