Industrial Counting Scales

What are counting scales?

A counting scale is designed, as it suggests, to count items placed on the machine, to replace manual counting. Have you ever tried counting out two-hundred M3 screws? It’s time consuming and so very boring. Imagine having to count 15,000 by hand? It would take ages! So a counting machine is designed to specifically remove that time cost and, let’s be honest, repetitive boredom.

How do counting scales work?

On most dedicated counting scales there will be three displays – ‘Weight’, ‘Piece Part Weight’ and ‘Total Count’. Weight gives the total weight applied to the scale, piece part weight is the individual average weight of the items being counted and the magic resulting total number of pieces is on the last display.

In order to count accurately, counting scales need to be told what item they are counting. This means we first have to weigh a sample. The sample gives the scale two pieces of information, the weight and how many pieces that weight is. So we count a sample of say 25 screws and place them on the pan and the weight was 25g. So the scale knows that the individual weight is 1g, 25g divided by 25 items. Once the scale has this information you can now add screws to reach your target number of pieces, and watch the total count.

Why do I need a counting scale?

Well imagine having to do a stock check by hand, and you have thousands of components to count in your stores. How many man hours would be needed to count everything? Also, it’s important to note that the store is likely to be closed while this job is undertaken, potentially resulting in lost sales. Counting scales remove the need for manual counting and speed up the stock taking processes, saving you time and money. It is said that once you use a counting scale you never go back to manually counting.