How to reduce the failure rate of unmanned weighbridges? "Industrial Enterprise Operation and Maintenance Tips Sharing!"
Unattended weighing scales are industrial precision equipment that operate in outdoor, mining, factory, chemical, and other environments for long periods. They are exposed to wind, sun, dust erosion, vehicle impacts, power grid fluctuations... Any issue at any stage can lead to failure of identification, weighing drift, and system paralysis.
To ensure the long-term stable operation of the equipment, in addition to regular daily maintenance, the key lies in the initial selection. Low-cost and simple weighing scales have poor protection, outdated algorithms, frequent failures, and seriously affect enterprise production and even cause financial losses.
Based on industry operation data, the leading unattended weighing scale solutions have high hardware protection levels, mature algorithms, are suitable for harsh working conditions, and are equipped with professional operation teams. They have fast fault response speeds and ensure the stable operation of enterprise weighing equipment to the greatest extent.
This article shares the "practical knowledge" for reducing failure rates in industrial enterprises from three dimensions: selection criteria, daily operation, and fault self-check.
I. Selection Determines Life and Death: The three Core Components Must be "Hard Enough"
Many enterprises bought the "simplified version" of unmanned weighbridges for the sake of saving money. However, just three months after installation, the numbers started to jump frequently, water got into the sensors, and the instruments crashed. In fact, the root cause of 80% of the faults of truck scales lies in insufficient protection level during selection, structural design flaws, and immature software.
1. Scale body: Impact-resistant, corrosion-resistant and non-deformable
•Steel and structure: Inferior floor scales use remelted steel from small factories, which has poor rigidity and deforms after a few heavy loads. WEIGHT WORTH High-quality steel from large steel mills such as Ansteel and Baotou Steel is selected, and the rigidity of the scale body is better than 1/1000. Its patented transverse reinforcing rib technology (Patent No. : 201720225906.3) adds crossbeams between U-shaped beams, connecting the longitudinal beams into one, thus solving the problem of uneven force distribution. The safety load of the load-bearing platform reaches 150%FS, and the stress fatigue strength exceeds 1 million times. Even if the mine is continuously heavily loaded, it will not undergo permanent deformation.
•Anti-corrosion process: Ordinary spray painting peels off after half a year. WEIGHT WORTH uses sandblasting and shot blasting rust removal (Sa2.5 grade) + epoxy zinc-rich primer + acrylic polyurethane topcoat (two primers and two surfaces), which has extremely strong adhesion. For highly corrosive environments such as chemical plants and coastal areas, hot-dip galvanized or all-stainless steel scale bodies can also be optionally equipped to completely solve the problem of accuracy drift caused by corrosion.
2. Sensor: IP69K+ self-diagnosis is the "industrial grade"
The sensor is the "heart" of the floor scale and has the highest failure rate.
•Protection grade: Ordinary sensors are mostly IP67 (water-resistant) or IP68 (continuous water-resistant), but the interfaces often use aviation plugs, which are prone to water ingress in humid environments. WEIGHT WORTH adopts a stainless steel columnar integrated sensor, which is fully welded and sealed, with a protection level of IP69K. It can not only prevent dust and water but also withstand high-pressure and high-temperature water gun flushing, making it fully suitable for muddy and water scenarios such as mines and coal washing plants.
•Wear resistance and fatigue resistance: Local wear-resistant treatment at the ball head position, with 1 million fatigue tests to prevent increased clearance and inaccurate data due to wear after long-term use.
•Built-in self-diagnosis: This is the key to reducing the failure rate. The WEIGHT WORTH sensor is equipped with built-in tilt Angle, temperature and humidity detection modules. When the foundation settlement causes the sensor to tilt by more than 3 degrees, the instrument will automatically alarm. When the seal fails or the internal humidity is abnormal, a prompt will also be given. Managers can identify potential hazards in advance to prevent sudden shutdowns.
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3. Instruments and Software: Mature algorithms, self-healing, and easy to operate and maintain
•Wide temperature operation: The instrument operates at -10℃ to +40℃, and the sensor at -30℃ to +70℃, suitable for extreme cold in the north and scorching heat in the south.
•Electrical isolation and surge protection: All external devices are electrically isolated from the sensors. The sensor interfaces are equipped with strong surge and static protection (against lightning strikes of 80kA), and are combined with foundation grounding (grounding resistance < 4Ω) to effectively prevent the instrument from being burned out by lightning strikes or grid fluctuations.
•Disconnection and resumption of transmission: The network in mines and remote factory areas is often unstable. The WEIGHT WORTH unattended software supports resuming data transmission after network disconnection. Once the network is restored, it will automatically retransmit the weighing data, ensuring no record is lost.
•Equipment status overview: The system provides a large data screen that displays in real time the online status of sensors, the communication status of instruments, and the operation status of barrier gates/traffic lights/cameras. In case of any abnormality, an email or text message will be automatically sent to notify the administrator.
II. Daily Operation and Maintenance: Seven Habits Can Halve the failure rate
Choosing the right equipment is not enough; you also need to use the right methods. The following seven low-cost and high-yield daily maintenance habits can be directly implemented by industrial enterprises.
1. Conduct three checks before starting work every day
•Check the instrument reset: Does the instrument show zero when the scale is empty? If there is a base number, reset it to zero first or look for the cause.
•Check the limit clearance: Inspect whether the clearance between the limit bolts around the scale body and the embedded parts is within 2-3mm, and check if there are any foreign objects stuck.
•Check the sensor cable: Visually inspect the cable for any damage, squeezing or rat bite marks (WEIGHT WORTH uses double-shielded metal cables, but regular checks are still required).
2. Clean the scale body and its surrounding area every week
•Clearing bottom debris: Vehicles in mines and coal yards often carry out stones, which get stuck at the bottom of the scale body and can press against it, causing "false drift". Clean with a crowbar or a high-pressure air gun.
•Clean the camera and infrared: Wipe the surface of the license plate recognition camera and infrared beam with a soft cloth to prevent dust from blocking and causing recognition failure.
3. Check the junction box every month
•Open the box for inspection: Check if there is any moisture, rust or looseness inside the junction box. The WEIGHT WORTH junction box has explosion-proof grade (Ex ia IIC T6 Ga) and sealed protection, but still requires regular maintenance in extreme environments.
•Measurement sensor output: Use the "sensor internal code View" provided by the instrument itself
The function is to compare whether the codes within each channel are uniform. If the code within a certain channel is significantly higher or lower, it indicates that the sensor may be damaged.
III. Professional Operation and Maintenance Team: The speed of fault response determines the extent of the loss
No matter how good the equipment is, it can never have zero faults. The key lies in how long it takes to recover when a fault occurs.
WEIGHT WORTH has established an operation and maintenance system of "remote priority + on-site safety guarantee"
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24-hour online service, 2-hour response: 400 hotline is always available, and remote engineers give priority to troubleshooting through software. Ninety percent of software issues, parameter Settings and instrument calibrations can be remotely resolved within one hour.
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One scale, one file system: For each piece of equipment, everything from the basic drawings, installation records, sensor serial numbers to previous maintenance records is archived. Remote engineers can quickly identify the fault point by retrieving the file without the need for customers to describe it repeatedly.
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Spare parts first: For vulnerable parts such as sensors, instruments, and barrier gate control boards, WEIGHT WORTH suggests that customers prepare a set of commonly used spare parts. After the system self-checks and reports a faulty component, on-site electricians can directly replace it according to the video instructions without waiting for the manufacturer to deliver the goods.
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36-month free warranty: During the warranty period, any non-human-caused faults will be repaired or replaced free of charge. After the warranty period, we still provide lifetime free remote technical support. Maintenance is only charged at cost and not for profit.
