How to choose a bench scale?
Bench scales are widely used across industries in a broad range of applications. They are usually packed with useful features and functions to optimize the weighing experience. Bench scales have a compact footprint, often they are small enough to fit on counters, workstations, carts, and tables. Common places you’ll see a bench scale include kitchens, veterinary offices, retail shops, grocery stores, or industrial settings. To learn more about bench scale basics checkout this blog post.
What is a bench scale?
A bench scale is designed to be placed on a table or counter during weighing. They have large platters or weighing pans and they take up a small footprint. Many bench scales come with an integrated indicator and keypad while others have a detachable indicator that is usually mounted on a column or a nearby wall. Bench scales are designed to weigh a broad range of products. In general, they are affordable and easy-to-use. They provide the features and precision needed for most businesses, offering a professional weighing solution to those on limited budgets. There are so many different manufacturers out there you can find a variety of capacity, readability, and platform size options.
Examples include:
Bench Scales Applications
The most frequently used applications for bench scales include checkweighing and counting. Bench scales are ideal in assembly or manufacturing shops; the scales weigh raw materials, count pieces before packaging, or checkweighing during quality control. Bench scales of varying capacities can be used in shipping and receiving operations. These scales weigh boxes, ensuring fair and accurate transportation costs. The scales fit on counter-tops and easily communicate with computers and printers. Bench scales can also be used in production processes, to weigh ingredients when making small batches of things like food, soaps, and candles. Grocery stores, cafeterias, and other retail shops use bench scales to weigh foods, candy, and ice cream.
Available Features
To ensure easy cleaning, look for a bench scale with a stainless steel platform and sealed keypad. Overload protection ensures the scale isn’t compromised by excessive weight, and can help it last longer. When used in quality control, checkweighing scales allow users to set weight limits and visually see whether the scale is weighing over or under the limit. Some scales have audible alarms, in addition to the visual alarm.
Bench scales can also include a rechargeable battery in addition to an AC adaptor. The rechargeable battery provides power to the scale and allows users to move the scales around or use them in places where electricity isn’t easily accessible. It is important to know how long the battery can operate without being recharged when spec’ing out the scale. Other options include a backlight to aid in visibility and/or automatic power-off features to save on power consumption and increase life.
Ease of connectivity is also an important consideration for some bench scale uses. For the most part, bench scales are easy to integrate into other software systems (like a shipping operation). The scale should come with an RS-232 and/or USB interface to connect to computers, printers, and other peripheral devices. The digital weight indicator can also be programmed to follow a specific workflow and capture variable data entered by the user. This database can then be saved locally on the scale or the data can be shared across a network.
One of the most important considerations is to make sure and check that the capacity and readability suits your requirements. This, along with other features and functions (such as checkweighing, parts counting, etc) are important points that must be considered prior to purchase. If you need help finding the right bench scale, or you simply want to learn more, you can contact us.
Learn more about the bench scales that American Scale Offers here
Closing Words
At American Scale we strive to bring you informed and useful content on all things scale related. Be sure to check out our legal for trade truck scale system articles about truck scale foundation or how much do truck scales cost. We even have a guide to warranties. We also have articles on scale accessories, common problems to prolong your scales lifespan, weighing applications as well as what scale indicator works best with your junction box. To learn more about bench scales, it would be good to check out our other articles such as “Bench Scale Basics'' and “How Much Does A Bench Scale Cost?”. These articles will help with the basics of bench scale ownership.