by MARY M. COX
Manufacturer List
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Truck scales are an integral part of the waste and recycling markets because of the information they can provide relative to aspects involving route management, regulation, maintenance, safety and tracking of material being transported.
Jonathan Sabo is vice president of marketing at Cardinal Scale. He commented, “The Armor® truck scale is engineered with state-of-the-art robotics and represents over 70 years of our scale manufacturing experience. The scale is installed at metal recycling and solid waste facilities around the world, commonly weighing over 100 trucks per day at busy facilities. Available in impervious hydraulic or electronic load cell types, the Armor’s durable baked on, anti-corrosion tan powder paint stands the test of time. The legal for trade NTEP Armor arrives fully prepared for installation and includes 75,000 lb. capacity stainless steel load cells standard, which are factory assembled. A wide selection of capacities, platform sizes and types are available.”
Every Armor truck scale is 100 percent assembled and tested in the Cardinal factory before shipping to your location and the Armor scale arrives ready for concrete pouring. No rebar or other materials are required due to Cardinal’s exclusive con-lock system, specially designed for concrete to flow through the I-beams and lock into place.
Cardinal’s Scrapper series truck scales are engineered for scrap yards, recycling centers, and landscaping facilities requiring a medium duty NTEP legal-for-trade scale at an economical price. The Scrapper utilizes the proven PSC high-tensile strength, pre-stress concrete deck weighbridge that is 10 ft. wide with lengths up to 52.5 ft. long. Product capacities range from 25 tons up to 45 tons (25 ton CLC), “providing an excellent low cost scale for mid-sized trucks and pick-up trucks pulling trailers,” Sabo said.
He added, “Recycling is a fast growing and lucrative industry, and Cardinal Scale’s Scrapper provides customers with an inexpensive truck scale marketed specifically for the salvage and recycling industry. We offer the widest range of truck scale technology and applications available from one manufacturer: portable axle, weigh-in-motion, self-contained, electro-mechanical, electronic, and hydraulic.”
According to Joe Grell, vice president of heavy capacity products, “Rice Lake Weighing Systems has manufactured and distributed the highest quality weighing products since 1946. Our Survivor line is the industry’s quality-driven brand of truck scales. They contain up to 25 percent more structural steel than others on the market, and are built tough to provide a minimum of 25 years of reliable service. Recycling plants and transfer stations need heavy-duty truck scales to keep material moving and operations running smoothly.”
“With a Survivor, you are guaranteed a product that was manufactured according to ISO 9001 quality guidelines, one that has been designed and tested to ensure structural integrity, and one that has earned NTEP certification if needed for the application, up to 16.5 feet wide on most models. Every special order truck scale is subjected to the same design and testing methods as standard models. We even employ a heavy capacity design team strictly for custom-designed truck scales.”
Grell noted “A truck scale is a relatively large investment; one that should only have to be made once a generation. If you’re in the market to purchase a truck scale, you should focus on quality and longevity. With a Survivor, it will be the only truck scale you purchase during your tenure. Also, having an open relationship with your scale dealer and the scale manufacturer is key to ensuring your scale will fit all of your requirements, even if custom designs are involved. Your truck scale is your cash register. You can’t afford unexpected downtime, and you shouldn’t settle for a scale with a lifespan of seven to 10 years.”
The truck scale market is now in its third phase of introducing new electronic truck scales. Many of these scales will replace older mechanical scales, or first or second generation electronic truck scales. “Depending on the scale manufacturer, a truck scale may last seven to 10 years for a lower quality scale on the market, or 25 years for a Survivor. The industry is limited in suppliers for custom replacement truck scales – only a few manufacturers will supply them. Very few will work with you like Rice Lake to ensure dimensions are exact and specifications meet operation needs. Also, the industry is trending toward an emphasis on automated ticketing. Most accidents involving truck scale drivers occur when drivers are outside of their vehicles. Scale owners seek solutions to keep drivers in their trucks to finish a transaction safely. Automated ticketing kiosks keep drivers safe within their trucks, and help limit accident liability on your property,” commented Grell.
“As the most comprehensive weighing solutions sales and service provider in the regional southwestern U.S., we manufacture the Sidewinder Truck Scale among other manufacturer’s brands,” explained Mark Murdza, sales and business development manager, Southwestern Scale Company, Inc. The Sidewinder is available in lengths from 20’ to 120’ and is offered in concrete deck or steel deck options, using 3/8” tread plate. The above ground truck scale design is based on 24” I-beam construction featuring side access suspensions for ease of maintenance, integrated wheel curbs to minimize wheel damage, can be used in permanent or portable configurations, and comes standard with a 10 year weighbridge warranty.
Murdza said, “The Sidewinder is used by a majority of waste and scrap materials operations in the southwest, in both the public and private sector and some of these scales weigh over 200 trucks per day. Truck scales are capital expenditures for our customers and ROI is operationally dependent, based on volumes and projections and can be a challenging prospect. The waste and recycling markets are primarily tied to capturing and retaining weighment data, automated ticketed and unmanned systems. Our systems integrations team delivers efficient solutions to our clients, based on their requirements and defined scope of work.”
Walz Scale has developed new technology that allows municipal waste operations to better manage inbound streams of material by volume. “Our p volumetric scanning technology can be used with or without a truck scale. If used with a truck scale we are able to deliver material density information per load. This new technology is ideal for tracking loads by volume in real time along with high definition load imagery for each load. The system is ideal for waste industry firms that seek new technologies to better manage material loads and reduce on-site labor costs,” Matt Walz, vice president, stated. He said systems can be installed on-site in as little as one hour and do not require a large investment in infrastructure.
Published in the January 2017 Edition of American Recycler News