Author Archives: Kevin Lamberth

About Kevin Lamberth

Kevin is the VP at Central Carolina Scale and has been providing customers proper weighing equipment for their applications for over twenty years. He often writes about scales and weighing equipment solutions. https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinlamberth/

Scale Calibration Frequency: How Often Should I Calibrate my Digital Scale?

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We’ve actually covered the subject of how often to calibrate a scale before but it’s always a good idea to remind customers just how important the accuracy of their scales can be. We get this question fairly often so today with the help of Doran Scales we’ll take another look at why it’s important to have your scales calibrated on a regular basis by a trained scale technician.

What is the value of the product to be weighed on the scale?
If the product being weighed is very expensive, there is value in regular and periodic inspection and calibration. For example if the product costs $10 a pound and on an average day 1,000 pounds of product is weighed on the scale, the total value is $10,000. Let’s assume the scale is out of tolerance by 0.5%; that discrepancy would be $50 per day, $250 per week, and $1,000 per month. Obviously, eliminating this error would save a tremendous amount of money and more than pay for the calibration services.

Is it a legal-for-trade application?
If you buy or sell product based upon weight using your scale, it will need to be inspected and certified by the State or local Weights and Measures Department at the time of or shortly after installation. If a scale is tested and found to be out of tolerance or if products in the field are found to not meet the stated weight, Weights and Measure can condemn the scales so that they cannot be used until recalibrated, and literally shut your production down.

How many weighments per day and at what % of scale capacity?
Generally speaking, with time and use scales can start to lose accuracy. It may be a tiny error but over months and years it can grow to unacceptable levels. Think of it in these terms: when you buy a new car, you can expect that the wheel alignment will be exactly accurate. When this same car has 75,000 or 100,000 miles on it, the wheel alignment may need to be adjusted due to normal wear and tear. The same idea is true with your scale. Regular calibration of heavily used scales will correct any accuracy errors that will normally occur with this type of use.

Are the scales frequently moved around in your facility or from one location to another?
Doran scales are designed to be portable, in the sense that they do not require a permanent installation location. However, many times when scales are moved, they are handled incorrectly, resulting in damage that can affect the calibration and accuracy of the unit. If your scales are constantly being moved around in your facility or moved from one location to another, regular calibration will help keep them accurate and reveal any damage that may have occurred when they have been moved.

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Restaurant Owners: Portion Control Is Very Important To Keeping Your Ingredient Costs Under Control

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If you are in the restaurant business then you understand how much your ingredients like cheese really cost, since you purchase them from your suppliers on a regular basis. Think about this for a second… Let’s say you’re making your best selling pizza or your most popular sandwich. What if you could cut back on your most expensive ingredient by just a smidgen. Actually, a better way to say it would be — what if you could develop a consistent way to add your ingredients so that every large pizza had exactly eight ounces of cheese or six ounces of pepperoni. The results would hopefully lead to more profitability and a consistent product your patrons could enjoy each and every visit.

This outstanding must read article that is referenced below goes into great detail about portion control and why it’s so important to a company’s bottom line.

“You can have the best pizza in the world. But you can lose your shirt if you’re not careful,” he said. “If you ain’t weighing it, you are winging it.” While many operators habitually weigh dough balls, nothing provides a pizza operator with more margin/cost control than weighing their cheese portions.

…. it’s important to keep cheat sheets for employees to remind them how much cheese to use, and even have the cheese pre-weighed in cups for them. This allows an operator to ensure consistency and to know the cost of every single pizza. The difference, for example, of 7 ounces and 10 ounces of cheese can be 60 cents per pizza. He also suggested adding a weighing scale that is easy for employees to use. Training and incentivizing is important for employees, who may free throw either through habit or to save time.

…. At the end of those 30 days, the concept saved about 200 pounds of cheese totaling $1,200, which was then split between the four employees as a bonus.

I like how the author wrote this article since it’s always great to see real world examples. As you can see from reading the entire article, your business can really benefit by adding some type of weighing functionality into your kitchen. Not only does this help control costs but it should also help restuarants increase their consistency. How many times have you gone to a restaurant and had one pizza with too much cheese or too little sauce, then you go back a couple weeks later and it’s the opposite problem. Customers love a consistent sandwhich or entrée (just ask my in-laws).

If you need some guidance on choosing the correct scale for your restaurant or prep kitchen please contact our sales department at 919 776-7737 or visit our site centralcarolinascale.com which has many scales posted for you to view. We also have a Youtube channel that shows a few of our scales in video format.

Why should I buy a scale that is “Legal-for-Trade” when I don’t intend to use it in a Commercial Weighing application?

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There are a number of questions we get from time to time regarding legal for trade scales. Often, especially with floor scales we are asked “why should I buy a scale that is “Legal-for-Trade” when I don’t intend to use it in a commercial weighing setting”?

Defining a commercial weighing application can sometimes be a little tricky. Scales can be moved around and get used for things that maybe you didn’t originally intend.

Basically, an NTEP approved device is required any time money changes hands based on a scale’s reading. We sometimes call this legal for trade scales or we might call it NTEP certified equipment.

Freight scales, for example, must be NTEP approved. For these situations government requires that a scale must pass tests put forth by the National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP). These regulations are meant to protect the consumer.

But if I were in the market for a scale, in most cases, I would want to choose a scale that was at least capable of passing NTEP testing and receiving an NTEP certificate.

If you think about it, we use a scale because we want to know an exact weight (as accurately as possible) and have trust in the information we view on the scale display.

NTEP approved floor scale

When selecting a scale to weigh your produce, or packages, would you choose one that’s been tested and approved by an independent third party as accurate, or would you rather have a scale that’s never been tested at all by an independent group?

NTEP Certified Commercial Scale

In most cases I would choose the scale that has been tested and received a conformance certificate.

Sure there are some markets and applications where NTEP certified scales are not really necessary. But when you’re comparing a legal for trade scale side by side with one that is non-ntep, ask yourself or your scale sales person a question. Could this non-ntep scale have earned a NTEP certificate of conformance?

If the answer is yes you may be ok with purchasing a non-ntep scale. The non ntep scale probably costs less, but is the scale accurate and stable as well?  How will you know for sure the scale is accurate? And if you need to replace it sooner than expected, how much money did you ultimately really save buying a non legal for trade scale?

If the sales person says no, the scale probably would not be capable of earning a certificate of conformance, that would cause me re-evaluate the product and my products that I’m looking to purchase.

Ultimately, it’s up to you the end user to decide what direction you want to to.

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Digital Weight Indicator For Scales With USB Port and Micro SD Card?

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Happy New Year!  It’s our goal to provide great service to you again this year and to bring you some really nice products that make your job easier. Cardinal Scale Manufacturing in Webb City Missouri has a digital weight indicator product line that is very popular with our customers. Cardinal’s weight indicators provide easy, convenient scale operation and accurate, reliable measurements. From basic truck scale weighing to complex process automation, Cardinal Scale probably makes a weight indicator for your application. Whether operators need an easy-to-maintain wash-down indicator or an indicator that provides highly visible scale readouts, a Cardinal indicator from Central Carolina Scale usually has an option available to suit a wide range of weighing needs.

collect scale weights on usb thumb drive

The latest announcement from Cardinal Scale is very exciting for those of us in the weighing industry. Over the years customers have always asked us “can I send weight data to my pc” or “we need to send scale data to the computer”. And the answer that we usually told customers was well, yes you can…… but it might require some additional software or yes… but it might require some other type of hurdle or challenge. Over the years it has gotten easier but depending on the product and what you are trying to connect to, it could be a real challenge to send weight data reliably and consistently to a computer. But, now with the new Cardinal 2XX-USBA option board which is listed as USB-A Card, 2 USB-A Ports, One Micro SD Port – you have the ability to add a USB flash drive to a select group of Cardinal indicators like the 205, 210 and 225 and easily collect weighing data. For example, with one 4GB flash drive, you could literally collect millions of weight transactions. Then once you’re ready to view the transactions, you remove the flash drive and take a look at the CSV file on your computer. It’s easy to add titles to the columns and sum the weight column to determine the total amount of weight that you’ve weighed over a period of time. Continue reading →

Digital Scale With Email Alerts

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Cardinal Scale leads the weighing industry with their digital weight indicator product line. Cardinal’s weight indicators provide easy, convenient scale operation and accurate, reliable measurements. From basic truck scale weighing to complex process automation, Cardinal Scale has a weight indicator for your application.

Cardinal Scale’s 825 Spectrum weight indicator can send automatic e-mail alerts through an Ethernet connection to the client’s internal SMTP e-mail server for submission to up to three recipients per scale. The 825 features up to 10 scale inputs per indicator by installing additional option cards to the multiple slots available, and each of the scales connected has completely-individual configuration for the e-mail alerts.

Originally programmed for a company to use with a series of tank scales, this 825 custom application allows users to receive instant notification on stocking levels, such as when it’s time to order refills.

Cardinal Scale 825 Spectrum Digital IndicatorEasy set-up for this application is enabled through the 825’s touchscreen LCD and QWERTY keyboard where users may assign the e-mail address the alerts are sent from, which also acts as a return address (any address may be configured). There are four preset weights available per scale for user-definable targets such as Over, Accept, Under (Reorder), and Extremely Low, which may be labeled whatever the user chooses. Continue reading →

Wrestling Scale Certification

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Each year customers at middle school, high schools, and colleges contact our scale company looking to purchase certified digital scales to use for their wrestling team or sometimes they just simply want to get their old scale checked and certified. Most of the time the process is pretty simple. However, occasionally the customer is not certain about what rules or regulations they need to follow to weigh a wrestler. So, before you purchase a scale or have one certified, it might be a good idea to check with your athletic conference or sanctioning body or perhaps you have some type of “rule book” to make certain what rules you need to follow. For example, one rule that we have been told is that some states require schools to use a NTEP legal for trade scale (with CoC#) for weighing wrestlers.

certified wrestling scaleWhen it comes to actually certifying the scales, it is usually a good idea to get your wrestling scale certified annually. Generally, when we calibrate and certify the scale we normally look over the scale and make sure it appears to be functioning correctly. If something appears broken or missing such as a leveling foot, we might mention that on the paperwork or even recommend you purchase a replacement. We make sure the display is working correctly and showing all the digits and decimal point correctly. We also like to make sure the platform is solid. Also, if your scale has a rechargeable battery inside you might want to try charging it up and using it a few days before your scale check up to make sure it’s Continue reading →

Portable Wheel Weighers Overview From Intercomp

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At Central Carolina Scale, we’ve been selling, renting, and repairing scales for over 40 years and likewise Intercomp has been building outstanding portable wheel weighers and crane scales for decades as well. Intercomp is the world’s largest manufacturer of portable weighing and measurement products, producing the highest quality products at competitive prices. Customers in fields like aerospace, transportation, automotive, and numerous other industries know that Intercomp’s products provide reliable solutions for the most exacting applications.

PT300 Portable Wheel Weigher Scale

Intercomp’s exclusive RFX Wireless Weighing Technology is the most advanced technology of its kind. The complete line of portable scales, indicators, and test equipment utilize RFX Wireless Weighing Technology to provide the accuracy needed to obtain reliable readings in any weighing application. Intercomp industrial weighing products also consists of portable high capacity scales & load cells for under the wheel of vehicles, on overhead cranes, in material handling devices and mounted within production equipment. Let’s take a look at a few of the Intercomp wheel load scales below. Continue reading →

Strain Gauge Load Cell Designs From Cardinal Scale Manufacturing

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But in today’s ultra competitive climate, it’s getting very difficult to find domestic built load cells. In fact we wrote about that not too long ago, you can click here to see that article.

Today I wanted to look at several of the load cell designs that are available from Cardinal that distributors like Central Carolina Scale sell everyday. Of course, load cells convert force into an electrical signal and are a very important part of things like hanging scales, truck scales, floor scales, and many other medical or industrial weighing systems. The load cell sensor detects force and moves the strain gauge, which then measures the movement as an electrical signal that can be used to give power to the scale.

Located in Webb City Missouri, Cardinal Scale Mfg. is one of the largest load cell and strain gauge providers in the U.S. with their own state-of-the-art load cell facility. Cardinal features a wide variety of load cells for use with all weighing systems. From powerful aluminum alloy electronic load cells to durable stainless steel load cells, each model is available in a range of capacities. Continue reading →

Legal For Trade Price Computing Scales State Testing Info You Can Use

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legal for trade price computing scaleEvery year dozens and dozens of our customers either purchase new retail scales or they have their current legal for trade scale calibrated or certified. These are typically scales they can use at places like the farmers market to sell their fruits and vegetables by the pound. Basically any device used where items are bought or sold by weight is typically required by most state’s laws to be inspected and certified. This would include a counter top scale at a farmer’s market (or mechanical hanging scale) that is used to weigh produce that customers want to buy. Of course, inspecting a retail scale is an advantage to both the farmer and the customer.

I’ve mentioned this in the past but if you are buying or selling your items based on weight, you want to make sure that you purchase a scale that has NTEP approval. The certificate of conformance or CoC# should be on the side of the scale. The article below is also a good resource.

Keep in mind that no device is perfect and must be adjusted periodically. It is also recommended that you do not buy cheap quality scales that will likely not last. There are regional inspectors located across the state that will coordinate with the marketer to complete the certification. The inspectors have a set of standard weights calibrated annually for correctness. They will use these weights to test the marketer’s scales. Once you scale has been inspected you need to recertify every two years.  If the scale is out of tolerance (deemed inaccurate) a scale repair service must fix the scale or a new unit must be purchased. Click here to read entire article. Continue reading →

Can I Buy An American Made Floor Scale?

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Over the past few months on this site we have taken a look at how realistic is it to purchase certain types of scales and related equipment that is actually made in the USA. We looked at Made In The USA scale indicators and Built in America Load Cells. Today I wanted to find out if you can still buy a Made In the USA floor scale?

Absolutely! Now I do want to write a small disclaimer before I get started. The information presented below is provided to the best of my knowledge and at the time of this writing is true. As all of you know, the pressures of a shaky economy and increased competition can always force scale manufacturers to change their process. But to my knowledge what I’m writing below is accurate regarding these decks being made in the United States. So with that being said, let’s answer the simple question. Can I still get a floor scale that was actually built in America? Yes you can.

Anytime you think of floor scales built in America the first choice has to be the Pennsylvania Scale 6600 series. The Pennsylvania floor scale is built in either Lancaster PA or at the corporate facility in Terre Haute, IN. These scales are well built and feature an outstanding warranty. As an added bonus, the indicators from Pennsylvania are also made in the USA. Continue reading →