Top 5 Tips for Buying the Best Counting Scale
Owning a precise counting scale or weighing instrument that is trade approved can be considered crucially important to any business long term. In order to control costs and manage budgets, you depend on every item you make or buy to be as expected. So how do you know you've received the correct number of items that you've purchased from your supplier? How do you know if you've made the correct number of pieces to send to your production department or customers?
While you may expect a counting scale to be calibrated and accurate when it is new, its accuracy may deteriorate with use and time. After six months of use will it still weigh at the same point when you weigh your sample as it does when you weigh your bulk quantity? How do you know?
The solution is to buy top quality counting scales that are designed to hold and retain their calibration. But how do you know the difference between a quality scale and which is not?
5 things you need to know before buying a counting scale
1) Do your research!
There are many companies selling counting scales in the UK today. Some counting scales are imported from the Far East without any quality control of the components that are used to make them. Some companies rebadge products without any quality control. Some import them and don't calibrate the scales before they are sent to the customer.
2) Check that the counting scale been calibrated correctly
Imagine if you had an item that you made for 15p each and you count out 1000 items each time, ten times per day. The counting scale these items are counted on are of poor quality, loses its calibration and doesn't perform consistently. The first day you count out £1500 worth of product and you send it out. The second day the scales increase a little in calibration and have an error which is not noticed. If, for example, on this day the count of 1000 pieces is actually 1020 pieces, you ship out 200 more pieces during the day than you should have. This has just cost you £30 and if this error carries on for just a month, the cost of this error runs to over £650 without noticing!
Regretfully there are companies selling scales that are not calibrated before they get to the user. Some of these scales may also not be checked for accuracy throughout the weighing range.
3) Think about how you intend to use the scale
Whilst all counting scales are purchased for counting, some scales are equipped with additional features such as totalisation, parts counting and check counting. How you intend to use your scale can affect whether or not you should buy a simple or more expensive counting scale. For example, a top of the range counting scale that has an LED check counting lights and weight accumulation may not be relevant to you if you are looking to simply count currency.
4) How often are you likely to use the scale?
Whilst this seems like a particularly obvious question to ask yourself, it is important to consider whether buying a counting scale is your best option. If your industry is likely to count large volumes of items on a regular basis, then a counting scale would be useful in reducing the time and effort spent on this by your employees. However, if you only count small numbers of items every now and again then a counting scale may not be a viable option for you.
5) Buy from a reputable manufacturer
Buying a quality scale from a reputable dealer may mean paying a little more than for other scales, but the initial cost is more than justified given the potential problems of buying unknown brands and cheap imports.
Inscale has carried out all the tests that are required to assess which products are of proven quality and will give the security of consistency and precision that is needed. We have a combined market experience of over 40 years in the weighing and measurement industry. We only work with UK-approved quality ISO9000 suppliers to provide you the best service and support in the market today.
Inscale's counting scale best buys:
A&D FC-i Bench Counting Scale With the incorporation of A&D's unique Super Hybrid Sensor (SHS) technology, A&D's FC-Si counting scale models are capable of an internal resolution of FIVE million parts.
Adam Equipment CCT counting scales Made by the same proven manufacturer as the CBC scales, CCT has enhanced features that make it easy to carry out checkweighing and parts counting applications. Ideal for counting large amounts of manufacturing parts including screws, nuts and bolts.
Remember only dedicated scale companies like Inscale Ltd provide quality weighing equipment that is tested and calibrated before dispatch.
For any further information on our range of counting scales, please contact us by phone (01908972660) or Get In Touch.
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