Author Archives: Scale Man

iDimension Frequently Asked Questions

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If you ship packages to customers or suppliers then you really should take a look at the iDimension system built by Rice Lake. Not long ago we went into detail about how dimensional weighing is becoming a very important area for shippers to pay close attention. Today we wanted to present a few of the frequently asked questions along with answers. Plus we’ll also provide a video below that shows the unit in action easily calculating dimensional weight for various items and packages.

Q: Does iDimension Interface with shipping software programs?
A: The iDimension Series at this time is a new product. The free API and software development tool kit can help users interface with their current system. In the future, look for iDimension Software Compatibility Chart at www.ricelake.com as new companies are added to the list.

Q: How do I connect my iDimension to a PC?
A: The iDimension Series interfaces to an Ethernet port. Connect directly to a PC’s Ethernet port or router switch so that iDimension can be configured as a DCHP or static IP device.

Q: Does iDimension have a operator display or keypad?
A: The customer’s computer monitor is used as the display. iDimension’s embedded firmware provides a demo display with image, operator display and customer display. Use a Wi-Fi router to connect to a tablet using iDimension’s web service technology.

Q: Can iDimension connect to a scale?
A: iDimension can be configured to add the weight into the iDimension displays or API. There is a selection of common shipping scales to choose from or use a Rice Lake 420 indicator with custom iDimension software that uses an RS-232 to USB converter, providing an FTDI driver. Actually in a lot of cases, the end user’s scales already interface to their software program; so connection to the iDimension is not required.

Q: What is an API?
A: Application Program Interface, or API, is a set of routines, protocols and tools for building software applications. An API is generally a specification of remote calls exposed to software for consumption that will allow the software to perform different operations, or retrieve specific data. The Rice Lake API allows users to interface with the system to retrieve dimensions, weight, a low-resolution image and more valuable data using a simple HTTP request and XML parsing method. iDimension is easily installed over existing conveyors and workstations.

Q: Does iDimension provide a dimensional weight?
A: The iDimension Series is NTEP Certified to provide dimensional weight since most shipping software programs provide dimensional weight standard. However, we provide length, width, height, weight, a low resolution image, time and date, sequential capture identification, status, extended status, and identification barcode information.

Q: What is an irregular shape?
A: An irregular shape is anything that is not packed in a carton. iDimension is one of the few dimensioning systems that accurately measure an irregular shape with NTEP Certification at 10 mm accuracy.

Q: How do I calibrate the iDimension Series?
A: A calibration tool is provided with each product. Simply place the item under iDimension and calibrate using the embedded firmware.

Q: What are the advantages of the iDimension Series?
A: iDimension is an innovative, easy-to-maintain dimensioning solution with no moving parts to service. iDimension can quickly capture dimensions in 0.2 seconds from parcels placed anywhere in its zone of interest work area. A high-resolution camera captures an image of the parcel to identify bar codes and OCR data.

Q: What is the warranty?
A: One year from date of installation.

Q: What is the repair policy?
A: Rice Lake Weighing Systems has a repair depot swap program and easy field replacement.

Q: How do I troubleshoot in the field?
A: Using a remote support program like TeamViewer®, Rice Lake’s iDimension service team can quickly provide remote support from our facility without need for a field visit.

Q: Ok, all of this sounds great, how do I get an iDimension for my company?
A: Contact the sales team either by phone at 919-776-7737 or via the information request form.

Intercomp Military Scales for Portable Wheel Weighing

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For many years we at Central Carolina Scale have provided U.S. Military customers outstanding customer service and discounted pricing on Intercomp PT300 wheel weighers, among other scales. No matter what country or base you’re serving in or what branch (Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, or Marines) we provide outstanding products and prices. Intercomp is the leading manufacturer of portable scales and accessories used for weighing vehicles, passengers, baggage, containers and pallets during mobility, deployment and transportation/material handling applications. All products are available with discounted prices instead of GSA. Please contact us for NSN (National Stock Number) or relevant purchasing information. Call: 919-776-7737

GSA CNT GS-07F-078BA

The Industry Standard in Digital Wheel Load Weighing
PT300™ scales have been setting the bar for portable, self-contained, compact wheel load scales for decades. Used to maximize legal payloads with concern for violations and reduction of maintenance due to overload stress on equipment, these all aluminum, fully electronic scales are capable of weighing up to 40,000lbs (18,000kgs) with an accuracy of ± 1%.

Progressive advancements in weighing technology have opened the doors to improving on this time-tested industry standard. Today, PT300™ scales are built with fully integrated RFX™ Wireless Weighing Technology providing the ability for scale data to be received, recorded, and observed on a variety of indicators; as well as control scale functions remotely. In addition, battery life has been significantly enhanced with the use Continue reading →

Avery Weigh-Tronix ZQ375 Scale Helps Doughnut Shop Meet Quality & Hygiene Standards

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Well, you had to know if any of our scale suppliers that we represent provided us a story about Krispy Kreme, we would be all over it.  Well, recently the ZQ375 Checkweigher from Avery Weigh-Tronix provided some great benefits to the Krispy Kreme company and helped the company to meet quality and hygiene standards. Below is a case study to further discuss the scale and its benefits. Krispy Kreme is relying on Avery Weigh-Tronix’s new ZQ375 checkweigher to help maintain its daily doughnut production for the North East of England.

Krispy Kreme’s well-known doughnut shops can be found in over 730 locations in 21 countries around the world. Its new Newcastle (UK) Hotlight store produces 16 different varieties of doughnuts for its own on site retail store, its other regional outlets and retailers such as Tesco. The company has just installed a 6 kg and a 45kg ZQ375 checkweigher at its Newcastle store to weigh its ingredients prior to baking. Empty containers are placed on the scales and then filled with the ingredients for the batter or the fillings.

Krispy Kreme prides itself on providing fresh doughnuts daily, so the equipment must be reliable, robust and easy to clean. Of particular importance is the scale’s IP69k rated enclosure, which allows the check weighing scales to be thoroughly cleaned without fear of water or particle ingress. It has a smooth, polished surface finish, curved corners and an easy to remove cover. The design minimizes the growth of micro-organisms on the scale and limits food trap areas where bacteria can thrive.

Says Ollie Kane, service manager for Krispy Kreme: “As a business it’s important that we get the ingredient mix correct to ensure quality. The scales are constantly used as we produce fresh doughnuts daily for all of our outlets. Over the course of a week we will produce 1.3 million doughnuts nationally. “The new scales are robust, easy to clean and are also easy to use. The indicator is on top of a column on the scale at a convenient height for the operators and its display is very clear so that they can easily check that the weight of the ingredient is correct. “Aesthetically the scale is also very attractive, which is important because we sometimes open up the production area so that the public can see what is happening.”

This is another example of how food processing businesses are relying on the Avery Weigh-Tronix ZQ375 digital scales for accurate weighing. Your business would more than likely benefit from one of these check weighing scales as well. Contact the sales team at Central Carolina Scale for an analysis of what item(s) would work best for your application.

Do I Have to Send My 190 STORM Indicator in to the Factory for an Option Install?

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As we’ve mentioned in the past, the Cardinal 190 weight indicator is a very popular digital weight indicator. Most customers like it because it is washdown safe and because of the easy to read display that can change colors based on your tolerance settings that you can program into the unit. This makes it a great scale readout for checkweighing. One question that customers sometimes ask relates to optional features and do you need to send the unit in to the factory for installation?

As of the time of this write up, there is only one option that needs to be installed at the factory, and that is for the analog output (190-DAC). This is because the DAC option requires a certain software in the 190 to work. Any of the other connectivity options for the 190 (i.e. battery pack, Ethernet, USB, Wifi, RS232) do not require special programming and can be installed in an existing 190 in the field. Please contact us if you are interested in adding one of these Cardinal 190 indicators to your list of weighing equipment.

Check Weigh Scale Works Well for Warehouse Club

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Of course nobody here is surprised to hear this but recently the warehouse club Costco used some Avery Weigh-Tronix ZQ375 checkweighers in the bakery. The results were impressive with great marks for wash down capability and weighing accuracy. Below is a case study provided by Avery Weigh-Tronix the maker of the ZQ375.

Costco, the national Cash & Carry Membership Warehouse Club that produces and stocks a wide range of food products, has upgraded its scales to Avery Weigh Tronix’s new ZQ375 Checkweigher to achieve more accurate weighing for its bakery and confectionary ingredients. Costco has installed six ZQ375-30kg units at each of its newest warehouses at Leicester, Southampton and Farnborough and one larger, floor standing 90kg capacity ZQ375 for bulk weighing in the Butchery Departments. The equipment must meet stringent hygiene standards and must also precisely weigh a wide range of ingredients, from custard to food dye, to ensure a high quality final product.

Says Wayne Parsons, Regional Bakery Manager for Costco: “At Costco we take a lot of pride in the fact that we freshly bake a lot of our products in the bakeries at our warehouses. To do this, it’s important that the scales we use are consistently accurate, convenient to use, and have an easy to read indicator. This allows our bakers to meet their daily quota of produce and deliver a high quality end product.”

“Another particularly useful feature of the ZQ375 Checkweigher is that it is capable of five gram divisions and a capacity of 30kg, whereas the old scales we used were only capable of divisions by ten grams. When we are dealing with ingredients such as food dye, this feature is particularly useful as it allows a much greater level of accuracy when dealing with smaller quantities.” The flat scale pan on the ZQ375 Checkweigher makes it easy to place different shaped products on the scales and still get an accurate weight. In the Costco warehouse bakeries where weighed ingredients come in a range of different shapes and sizes, this ensures production remains efficient. Parsons concludes, “As a business, our bottom line is affected by whether or not we can deliver the high quality food products that our customers expect. Investing in this type of equipment helps us to achieve that.”

Featuring food-grade, fully stainless steel construction, the ZQ375 Checkweigher is a highly efficient solution for the food industry and beyond. From complete visibility of weighing data and statistics to fast, effective, simple checkweighing, the ZQ375 Checkweigher can help you to maximize performance and profitability while meeting strict legislative requirements. The ZQ375 is available from Central Carolina Scale located in Sanford, NC.

Stretch Wrap Machine With Scale

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If you’re shipping pallets loaded with smaller boxes then the chances are you’re using some type of shrink wrap or stretch wrap to keep the smaller boxes on the pallet. Some smaller companies use a stretch wrap roll and manually walk around the pallet themselves. However, many larger companies or organizations that ship out quite a few pallets typically use a stretch wrap machine to accomplish this task.

One issue that can take place during this process is obtaining a pallet weight. Often the pallet has to be wrapped with stretch wrap and then moved over to the floor scale to obtain a weight. Now you can imagine if this happens multiple times each day, the lost time and inefficiency can really add up.

strech wrap machine scale

A great solution for this is to add one of our large floor scales to your stretch wrap area. As you can see from the picture, the stretch wrapper sits on top of the platform scale and makes securing the pallet and obtaining a pallet weight a simple process. Custom floor scales for under stretch wrappers are available from Central Carolina Scale. Custom sizes no problem; standard pricing and scale is typically delivered within 4 weeks. Give us a call at 919-776-7737. Low profile and high capacity are standard features along with easy zero reset (on the Pennsylvania 7500/7600 indicators) for the dead load easily preserves full capacity and calibration.

We Rent Test Weights For Checking Elevators

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If you check elevators for safety and weight capacity limits then you probably need large calibrated test weights to do the test. We have those weights available for rental in the state of North Carolina. If you need 1000 pound weights we can provide those or 2500 pound weights are also available. Call us at 919-776-7737 or fill out our online form for additional information. We are located in the triangle area near Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville and Sanford, NC area.

Dimensional Weighing and Measuring of Boxes At Shipping Table

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Some companies ship lots of parcels and boxes every single day. Others ship quite a few boxes occasionally and light amounts otherwise. Meanwhile, some companies have hundreds of boxes that ship out to their customers via FedEx or UPS everyday.

At Central Carolina Scale, we ship out quite a few boxes every week and recently noticed a change that you are probably going to start noticing as well if you own a business that ships out packages via UPS Ground.

We’ll focus mostly on UPS since that is our primary carrier but you can probably expect FedEx to do something similar if they’re not already. You see in the past UPS mostly focused dimensional weight rates, aka… dim weight on their expedited services like UPS Red (Next Day Air) or UPS Blue (2nd Day Air). Well, starting in 2015 dim weights apply to the standard UPS Ground charges as well. You can see more at the UPS rates website.

In addition to the announcement that UPS® Ground, Air and International rates will increase an average net 4.9% there is also a mention of dimensional weight pricing.

Dimensional weight pricing will apply to all UPS® Ground services and UPS® Standard to Canada packages. Dimensional weight pricing encourages reductions in excess packaging materials and overall package sizes, leading to reduced fuel use, vehicle emissions and transportation costs.

We should probably give you a quick overview of what dimensional weight is all about. Here is the way UPS describes it. Dimensional weight reflects package density, which is the amount of the space a package occupies in relation to its actual weight. Dimensional weight may apply to all UPS domestic and international package services. Determine the package dimensions in inches. For each dimension, measure at the longest point, rounding each measurement to the nearest whole number (for example, 1.00 to 1.49 will be considered 1, and 1.50 to 1.99 will be considered 2). Measure the length, width and height of the package at its extreme points. If the package has a bulge or is irregularly shaped, include the bulge or irregular aspects of the package. Multiply the package length by the width by the height. The result is the cubic size in inches.

UPS Air Services shipments in U.S.: Divide the cubic size in inches by 166 to determine dimensional weight in pounds. Increase any fraction to the next whole pound.

UPS Ground shipments in U.S.: If the cubic size of the package in inches is 5,184 or larger, divide the cubic size by 166 to determine dimensional weight in pounds. If the cubic size in inches is less than 5,184, use the actual weight of the package. Increase any fraction to the next whole pound.

Effective December 29, 2014, dimensional weight will be used to calculate the billable weight of all UPS Ground packages. For business and industry this creates quite a quandary since it can be very time consuming getting out the tape measure or the yard stick and measuring every single box. Below are a couple of tips that might help you out Continue reading →

Avery Weigh-Tronix ZM305 Scale Indicator FAQ

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We put together a top ten list of frequently asked questions on the Avery Weigh Tronix 305 and 305 GTN Inbound-Outbound Indicators. The ZM305 Standard weight indicator is ideal for floor scales, batching, vessels and for in motion conveyors. Meanwhile, the ZM305 GTN Inbound-Outbound model is ideal for use with Truck Scales and Weighbridges and offers users the ability to store Gross, Tare and Net weights against up to 1000 container/vehicle IDs, providing inbound/outbound weighing. This rugged indicator features a unique Harmonizer filtering system which corrects for environmental noise and vibration which commonly occur in these applications. Let’s take a look at the list below.

10.  The 305 series is comprised of 2 different products, what are they?
The first choice is the ZM305 Standard stainless steel IP69K desktop with multiple built-in weighing applications with IBN display. The second choice is the ZM305 GTN Inbound-Outbound stainless steel IP69K with IBN display (Great for truck scales)

9. What is an IBN display?
This display technology provides tremendous contrast between its illuminated digits and surrounding background. It is used within the automotive industry to improve viewing in both bright and dimly lit environments.

8. What power source is required?
These indicators can operate on 90-264 VAC (110-240 VAC nominal), 50 or 60 Hz, 12 to 36 VDC or from the optional external battery pack ZM-BAT.

7. How long will the optional external battery pack power the scale?
The external optional battery pack ZM-BAT utilizes (4) D cell batteries. Fresh batteries will maintain operation of a single weight sensor system for six hours, or a four weight sensor system for four hours, and one hour with systems with eight weight sensors. The ZQ-BAT option with auto shut-off has selectable sleep mode choices in the Supervisor menu which will extend battery life if enabled.

6. Is the IP69K stainless steel a standard feature and what exactly is IP69K?
The ZM305 is enclosed in a stainless steel assembly with a IP69K certified rating. IP69K is a worldwide recognized standard which defines ingress protection of the enclosure. The ZM305 indicators are certified by a third party to meet this standard. Tip: Do not be misled by brands that claim their products are designed or equal to IP69K. Continue reading →