You can ensure that your weighing system performs accurately by choosing components suited to your application and taking steps to control environmental and other forces acting on the system. This article discusses five factors that can affect the weighing system’s accuracy and provides advice on selecting,
installing, and operating the system to handle these factors.
Weighing to measure dry bulk material quantities and flowrates has several benefits: Unlike volumetric measurement, weighing can measure a material quantity without correction factors for the material’s bulk density. Weighing doesn’t require contact with the material, making it suitable for the safe measuring of food or corrosive materials while operating even in corrosive environments. It’s also a widely accepted means of quantifying packaged products for sale.
A weighing system can take any of several forms but typically includes one or more load cells that support (or suspend) a weigh vessel or platform, a junction box, and a weight controller. When a load is applied to the weigh vessel or platform, a portion of the load is transmitted to each load cell. Each cell sends an electrical signal proportional to the load it senses via a cable to the junction box. The load cell signals are summed in the junction box and sent via one larger cable to a weight controller, which converts the summed signal to a weight reading. This weight reading’s accuracy can be affected by the system components’ quality and the system’s installation and operation in your environment.
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To help you choose high-quality weighing system components, take advantage of the expertise of weighing equipment suppliers. An important part of this selection process is determining how the system will be installed and what factors can affect its operation once it’s up and running in your process line. Consider how these five factors can affect your system’s weighing accuracy:
Achieving weighing accuracy means considering many mechanical and operational factors that can affect your weighing system. Choosing quality components especially suited to your application will go a long way toward ensuring that your system provides the accuracy you need. These components typically have impressive worst-case specifications, and their actual performance is usually better than the specification. As a general rule, select load cells and a weight controller with accuracies 10 times better than your desired system accuracy. And pay close attention to how you install and operate the system to prevent mechanical forces and electrical noise from reducing your weighing accuracy.
