Scales are vital to the food industry and they’re used at virtually every step, from weighing grain with a truck scale to weighing customer purchases at the deli counter with a retail scale. Here’s a brief overview of five types of scales that play a crucial role in the food industry.

1. Truck scales
Truck and axle scales can be used to efficiently weigh and document inbound and outbound freight, for example incoming ingredients and outgoing finished goods. They’re useful for managing inventory and for billing purposes. They also ensure that overloaded trucks don’t go out onto the highway, where they might represent a serious hazard.

2. Floor and bench scales
Floor and bench scales are used widely for shipping, receiving and sorting inventory. They provide accurate measurement and are available in waterproof IP-rated stainless steel. These scales are highly convenient, especially in the food industry, because they make it possible to maintain impeccable sanitation standards through quick and frequent washings.

3. Belt scales
These scales attach onto a conveyor belt and can weigh individual boxes and containers as well as unpackaged food products. Since they weigh items while the belt is in motion, they can eliminate off-line weighing, a time-consuming step that tends to slow operations. Belt scales connect to label printers, computers and scanners and are used for managing inventory and for billing.

4. Checkweighers
These scales provide highly accurate real-time readings, ensuring that your finished goods are correctly weighed right down to the last decimal. This is essential for complying with governmental regulations and for maintaining client satisfaction and confidence. In addition, food-grade, stainless-steel checkweighers are designed to meet the food industry’s strict hygiene requirements.

5. Retail scales
Retail or price computing scales are essential for any food retailer that sells products by weight, such as grocery stores, delis, bakeries and candy shops. They feature dual LED displays, which allow both the operator and the customer to have product and pricing information. They integrate with label printers whose labels accommodate bar codes, ingredient lists, weight, dates, nutritional facts, logos and more.

Superior scales for the food industry in Alberta

If you need precision weighing equipment for your food processing or retail operation, turn to Accurate/Western Scale Co. Ltd. We distribute, install, service and calibrate a wide array of scales, including state-of-the-art truck, floor, bench, belt, hopper, retail scales and checkweighers. For more information about our products and services, get in touch with us.

Checkweighers are machines used to verify the weight of packaged goods, either before or after the packaging step itself. Manual or automatic, these appliances are found in any sector that relies on accurate weighing of merchandise, including the food and beverage, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. They offer many advantages over off-line spot weighing, and here are four reasons you might need one.

1. You want to increase profits

A PROPERLY INSTALLED AND CALIBRATED CHECKWEIGHER WILL ALLOW YOU TO GREATLY REDUCE WASTE, CUT PRODUCTION TIME, INCREASE OVERALL EFFICIENCY AND BOOST YOUR BOTTOM LINE. IT’LL REPLACE INEFFICIENT OFF-LINE SPOT WEIGHING, FREEING UP VALUABLE EMPLOYEE TIME FOR OTHER TASKS AND ELIMINATING GAPS IN THE PRODUCTION LINE. SECOND, YOU’LL END UP WITH FEWER REJECTS THAT NEED TO BE SCRAPPED OR REWORKED, THUS ELIMINATING A HUGE TIME AND RESOURCE SINK.

2. You want to avoid fines

Given proper calibration and regular inspections, in-line checkweighing is the best way to ensure you respect governmental regulations and industry standards. Relying on off-line spot weighing is risky, as errors can creep in and result in hefty fines should an unsatisfactory product end up being sold.

3. You want to boost your reputation

Ensuring that all your products are within weight requirements is a great way to solidify your brand’s standing. In addition, prospective clients asking about your production capabilities will be encouraged by the implementation of in-line checkweighing solutions, as they’ll ensure both compliance with regulations and trustworthy, reliable service.

4. You want to streamline operations

Most checkweighers can be integrated into data management systems, providing real-time production, waste, rework and yield statistics that can be used to further streamline your production processes by identifying areas where loss can be minimized and even eliminated. In addition, properly calibrated in-line checkweighing generally reduces error rates, reducing the time, resources and labour costs of resolving them.

5. You want to ensure equipment effectiveness

In-line monitoring of production allows you to track variations and events that lead to downtime. This makes it possible to eliminate these factors and guarantee that your operations run as efficiently as possible.

Installation, inspection and calibration experts

A checkweigher is only as good as the people who install, calibrate and maintain it. To ensure yours performs as efficiently as possible, trust the experts at Accurate/Western Scale. We’re authorized to certify scales by Measurement Canada and we carry a wide range of products, from precision tools to loader scales. Contact us today to request a free quote.

One of the most important metrics for any mining, aggregate and quarry business is payload weight. In a highly competitive environment, the best tool at your disposal to ensure accurate and efficient payload weighing are on-board loader scales, and here’s ten things you should know about them.

1. They fill a crucial need. Precise payload weighing isn’t a luxury. Even small errors in weight can translate to substantial financial losses down the road and on-board loader scales are the best way to ensure accuracy.

2. THEY’RE ACCURATE. SOME MODELS CAN GUARANTEE A MARGIN OF ERROR BELOW ONE PER CENT REGARDLESS OF VARIABLES SUCH AS TEMPERATURE AND OPERATOR TECHNIQUE.

3. THEY HAVE VALUABLE FEATURES. MODELS ABLE TO PROVIDE A MACHINE’S TOTAL PAYLOAD FOR THE DAY AND SPECIFY TARGET BUCKET WEIGHTS WILL INCREASE EFFICIENCY EVEN FURTHER.

4. THEY SUPPORT MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS. MANY LOADER SCALES OFFER POWERFUL DATA COLLECTION AND INTEGRATION OPTIONS, ALLOWING YOU TO TRACK PAYLOADS ALONG WITH FUEL CONSUMPTION AND MAINTENANCE HISTORY.

5. THEY’RE CONNECTED. WI-FI AND CELLULAR CONNECTIVITY ALLOW YOU TO MONITOR PRODUCTIVITY IN REAL TIME. THIS PROVIDES A NEW LEVEL OF CUSTOMER SERVICE AND EFFICIENCY AND THE ABILITY TO REMEDY UNDERPRODUCTION ISSUES IMMEDIATELY.

6. THEY’RE LOW-MAINTENANCE. MOST LOADER SCALES ONLY REQUIRE SIMPLE, REGULAR CHECKUPS. SETTING UP PRE-SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE APPOINTMENTS IS EASY AND WILL ENSURE YOUR FLEET’S SCALES ARE IN TOP SHAPE.

7. THEY’RE HARDY. THESE SCALES ARE BUILT TO WITHSTAND A RANGE OF TEMPERATURES AND THE ROUGH CONDITIONS OF A MINE OR QUARRY.

8. THEY’RE A SMART INVESTMENT. EQUIPPING YOUR FLEET WITH LOADER SCALES WILL LOWER YOUR OPERATING COSTS BY ELIMINATING THE NEED FOR CONSTANT TRIPS TO WEIGHING AREAS OR FLOOR SCALES. THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO SAVE ON FUEL AND FLEET MAINTENANCE, AS YOUR MACHINES WILL HAVE TO COVER LESS GROUND IN THE COURSE OF NORMAL OPERATIONS.

9. THEY BOOST PRODUCTIVITY. SIMILARLY, FEWER WEIGHING TRIPS MEANS OPERATORS LOSE LESS TIME GOING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN WEIGHING AND WORK AREAS.

10. THEY’RE FLEXIBLE. LOADER SCALES CAN BE INSTALLED ON ANY VEHICLE, SO THERE’S NO NEED TO GO THROUGH THE EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE PROCESS OF UPDATING YOUR ENTIRE FLEET.

COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL SCALE EXPERTS IN ALBERTA

If you’re interested in increasing your productivity and lowering your operating costs,contact us at Accurate/Western Scale today. In addition to helping you with loader scale installation, we provide full support and maintenance for all our products and we can also certify and inspect your scales.

In virtually every industry that involves the extraction of raw materials or food harvesting, it’s important to have accurate weight data. This data helps companies to optimize efficiency and profitability and in some cases is necessary to ensuring one’s compliance with industry regulations.

Belt scales allow you to accurately and efficiently weigh materials in the first stage of raw material extraction or food harvesting, during which materials are loaded on to a conveyor belt before being transported to a manufacturing facility.

How do belt scales work?

Belt scales attach onto conveyor belts and provide continuous weight and flow rate measurements of the materials travelling along the belt. This data is calculated by weighing the belt load and measuring the belt speed.

How do belt scales help to optimize efficiency?

Using a belt scale eliminates a step in the production process, for materials are weighed on the fly, while being transported. Compare this with weighing the materials before they’re loaded onto the conveyor belt, using a conventional scale, or weighing them once they’re in the truck, using a truck scale. These represent an extra step in the loading process and an expense in terms of both time and labour.

Belt scales, on the other hand, weigh materials without adding any time to the loading or transportation processes. And, being entirely electronic, there’s no labour involved.

Belt scales can offer these same advantages to manufacturing business that uses a conveyor belt in their factory operations.

What are the applications of a belt scale?

Belt scales are used in a wide range of industries such as:

• Mining
• Mineral and aggregate extraction
• Agriculture
• Bulk material handling
• Port handling

They can attach onto virtually any machine with a conveyor belt system, including agricultural technology, road millers, screening machines, loadout systems and mobile applications.

Belt scales in Calgary

Accurate/Western Scale provides you with high quality belt scales, customized to conform to the unique conditions of each installation. Factors such as conveyor length, angle, speed and material type are taken into account so as to ensure the accuracy of the weight measurements. If you have any questions, or if you’d like to request a quote, get in touch with us today.

Hopper scales and all other measuring equipment used in trade must be approved and inspected by a scale inspector accredited by Measurement Canada. This ensures fair business practices and is a requirement under the Weight and Measures Act. Keep reading to learn more about why inspections of hopper scales are important and what the inspection process involves.

Why are inspections needed?
In order for your hopper scale to be properly certified, it needs to pass an inspection from a certified scale inspector. This ensures, first and foremost, that businesses don’t short-sell customers. There are penalties for short-selling, even when it’s inadvertent. When this activity occurs, or when businesses otherwise fail to comply with Measurement Canada’s regulations, they can face the following consequences:

• Fines of up to $50,000
• Equipment being taken out of service until modifications or repairs are made, resulting in a loss of productivity and revenue
• Damage to the company’s reputation

How often are inspections required?

The timeframe for mandatory inspections varies between industries. For example, in grain elevators licensed by the Canadian Grain Commission, hopper scales need to be inspected yearly; in the mining industry, hopper scales need to be inspected every two years.

In certain industries, scale inspections are recommended, but not mandatory. The onus is therefore entirely on businesses to have their scales inspected and to ensure their accuracy.

Consult the Measurement Canada website for more precise information on the timeline for mandatory inspection or recommended inspection for your hopper scale.

What’s involved in a hopper scale inspection?

The inspection process for a hopper scale, as outlined by Measurement Canada, involves the following steps.

Visual examination of installation and location

The inspector ensures, among other things, that the device is installed in accordance with restrictions and conditions listed in the notice of approval and in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions.

Visual examination of marking

The inspector ensures that the device is properly marked.

Visual examination of indicating element and recording element

The indicating element (the display) and the recording element (the printer) are inspected for accuracy and readability.

Device configuration

The functionalities of the device, such as the tare mechanism and zero setting mechanism, are inspected.

Performance

Tests are conducted to evaluate the device’s performance

Hopper scale inspection in Calgary

Accurate/Western Scale is a Measurement Canada authorized service provider. Count on our professional technicians to perform a comprehensive inspection of your hopper scale and ensure that it’s legal for trade. For more information about scale inspections, reach out to our team today.

Using the proper scale can make the difference between having a profitable growing season and a less lucrative one. Here are four pieces of weighing equipment that you may want to have on your farm.

1. Hopper scale

Many farming products are stored in bins and hoppers. Hopper scales are designed to weigh a continuous product flow into batches, which enables precise control of inventory, feeding and dosage. This means fewer financial losses due to waste and poor inventory monitoring as well as increased efficiency. Hopper scales can also be certified “legal for trade,” ensuring you don’t lose money by overfilling grain containers and that your buyers get what they pay for.

2. Truck scale

There are a variety of truck scales available for purchase, and while they carry a significant cost, it can be highly advantageous to have one. First, they give you complete control over your inventory, making it easier for you to market it yourself. Second, if,you haul the bulk of your grain and oilseeds to elevators owned by major companies, having your own scale lets you save on shipping costs and ensures you won’t have to pay the fines that come with overloading a truck. Finally, owning a scale lets you double-check any shipments you receive.

3. Livestock scale

Animal weight calculations are crucial to estimating proper feed quantity, medication dosage, calving intervals, calf growth and overall production efficiency. That’s why livestock scales are so important. They come in single animal or group sizes and most of them can be used to weigh a range of livestock. With portable and stationary options available, they’re a smart investment for farming operations of any size.

4. Harvest tracking system

Harvest tracking systems are software solutions that can be coupled with existing scales to allow tracking of net loads and field production. These systems provide valuable information that can be used to increase efficiency. The Smart 1 processor remotely adjusts the scale so that the net weight of a harvest is recorded and logged. Opptional attachments provide clear signals to facilitate the process of driving on and off of the scale. The system’s USB flash drive interface allows for hassle-free data portability, and existing installations can be upgraded easily.

Commercial and industrial scale experts

Whether you’re thinking of having one of these scales installed or need weighing equipment calibrated or repaired, you can trust that Accurate/Western Scale Co. Ltd. will provide excellent service. As Authorized Service Providers, we can also certify your scales according to Measurement Canada regulations. Call us today for more information about our products or to request an estimate.