Engineering, Equipment & Technology

How Mettler Toledo provides modern weighbridge upgrades and extensions

Weighbridges need to be suited to the conditions and expectations of the modern bulk handling industry. METTLER TOLEDO discusses how to ensure your weighbridge is suited to the latest requirements.

As the bulk handling industry changes, companies’ equipment and systems must shift with it to ensure high production and efficiency. In recent years, the bulk handling industry has changed as challenges, external pressures and government regulations have presented themselves.

Some bulk materials industries have struggled to find workers to fill workforce gaps, threatening their supply chains. For example, several quarries listed a lack of truck drivers as a serious concern in Infrastructure Australia’s 2023 market capacity report. One quarry operator stated: “Clearly, we use more truck drivers than anything else. So, that’s where we’re feeling the labour shortage the most.”

In response to the workforce shift, there has, in part, been a move to larger and longer trucks as companies try to transport more materials effectively.

“We’ve seen companies change their truck fleet to use longer trucks, and we’ve seen companies invest in these types of truck configurations to optimise the movement of products and gain more capacity,” METTLER TOLEDO business area manager John Beard said.

“It also helps utilise the customer’s most limited resource, the truck driver.”

But what happens when the truck exceeds the dimensions of an existing weighbridge?

Small weighbridges weighing long trucks can produce inaccurate weighing measures, as the truck is not correctly positioned and not level. This could also put the company at risk of non-compliance with the National Measurement Institute (NMI).

Split weighing on shorter weighbridges can take the driver and operator significantly more time to obtain a weighment.

Weighing the truck in one go on a full weighbridge is the quickest possible procedure and can save considerable time over a working week.

This is most noticeable during peak truck flow onsite.

A modern weighbridge is paramount to meeting this challenge as the “cash register” of any bulk handling business. However, purchasing an entirely new weighbridge, including civils and installation can cost upwards of $100,000 (length dependent).

This is why METTLER TOLEDO has become a specialist in weighbridge extensions and upgrades, assisting customers to affordably re-conform with modern standards and government regulations.

“We would like to educate businesses that there is another way to utilise their pre-existing assets and resources to minimise their costs for extending existing weighbridges,” Beard said.

“It requires minor  investment and has minimal disruption to their on-site processes because we only need to do the civil works of the extension and not the whole weighbridge.

“This method allows us to use the existing weighbridge they have on-site and make it longer to suit their current and future needs.”

It is also a financially viable option for many bulk-handling businesses. According to METTLER TOLEDO, a 10-metre extension to an 18m or 20m weighbridge capable of weighing B-double trucks would cost at least half of purchasing a new weighbridge, including civil works and installation costs.

Based on the company’s comparison, this could save businesses thousands of dollars and have these extra funds re-invested in other improvements to their organisation. In conjunction with this, it makes the weighbridge compliant with current NMI regulations.

Since the 1st of July 2010, the NMI states that the method for businesses transporting materials for trade is to weigh the entire vehicle in one go.

Split weighing on new weighbridges has not been a legal method for trade weighing for many years. (Source: Federal Register of Legislation – National Measurement Act 1960)

Some extensions can be installed in a manner that provides individual axle weights. Therefore, enabling businesses to be compliant with CoR legislation. The legislation states, “The Chain of Responsibility (CoR) is the part of the Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) that makes parties other than drivers responsible for the safety of heavy vehicles on the road.”

With this in mind, there is immense focus on ensuring trucks are legally loaded correctly to meet the legislative requirements.

METTLER TOLEDO’s experienced weighbridge specialists, with more than 200 years of industry experience collectively, can review a customer’s current weighbridge setup and advise on the best extension solution for their business needs and applications.

The company maintains offices and technicians in most states and a dealer network across Australia. Its expert team has experience in everything from simple solutions to full-scale turnkey projects.

During many weighbridge extensions, METTLER TOLEDO also convert the old and existing load cells to the same POWERCELL technology that is provided to the newly installed weighbridge. This allows the entire weighbridge to be covered by METTLER TOLEDO’s fully comprehensive 10-year warranty.

Due to its robust design, the POWERCELL PDX load cell is certified against lightning strikes, extreme temperatures, flooding, corrosion, and rust. METTLER TOLEDO builds its POWERCELL PDXs using a heavy-duty stainless-steel design, which is tested in harsh conditions to maintain operation. Due to this, the POWERCELL PDX can deliver reliability to businesses that rely on its advanced diagnostics.

Image: Mettler Toledo

Once the POWERCELL has been installed and the benefits experienced, many clients then convert other weighbridges in their fleet to improve their accuracy and reliability.

“With over two million in operation, it seems the word has got out and many have already made the switch,” said Beard.

“Having our customers upgrade their old weighbridge with POWERCELL technology as well as extending their weighbridge means they gain the best in class accuracy and reliability,” Beard said.

The POWERCELL PDX’s predictive diagnostics can help companies monitor the system health of their weighbridge and alert them to irregularities that may cause downtime. METTLER TOLEDO has a tiered range of POWERCELLs to ensure companies can find the solution that matches their needs and budget. This includes the new GDD POWERCELL, a high-level solution at an affordable price point for companies that want more than an analogue load cell but do not need all the functionality of the POWERCELL PDX, METTLER TOLEDO’s premium POWERCELL solution.

METTLER TOLEDO’s product specialists can help optimise a customer’s existing weighbridge by tailoring solutions specifically to their needs.

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