How Forklift Scales Can Revolutionize Your Productivity
The process of weighing heavy loads is all part of the routine for businesses that operate within factories, warehouses, or shipping centers. This continuous process of accurately collecting the weight data of pallet loads as they arrive and leave your facility is extremely important! The means by which you collect this data impacts your business in several ways, including:
- Productivity levels
- Cost maintenance
- Billing accuracy
- Accuracy in the calculation of shipping estimates
- Identifying areas of theft, damage, or other loss
For many industrial companies, being able to accurately weigh large pallet loads provides benefits that are significant and easy to obtain — as long as you’re outfitted with the proper equipment. There are many different types of scales on the market that are suited for this type of work, including large floor scales and portable scales, but there may be none more beneficial to these types of operations than the forklift scale.
What You Need to Know About Forklift Scales
Forklift scales are an incredible convenience. These scales can turn any normally functioning forklift into a precision scale device. All that needs to be done to convert your lift truck into this accurate weighing apparatus is a simple addition to your carriage which contains the scale device. In turn, the lifting arms of your forklift are attached to this new carriage, typically with a digital display terminal positioned in view of the operator. Whenever an object is lifted using the lift truck, the scale records the weight and transmits that load data in an easily readable format to the lift operator.
The installation process for this type of forklift truck scale is usually quite straightforward and takes no more than a few hours to complete. The unique functionality of forklift scales allows users to weigh heavy loads consisting of large pallets, freestanding items, or even other pieces of equipment.
As the technology involved in scale manufacturing continues to advance, forklift scales have evolved in step. Older forklift models could only display weight data on a screen, and the recording of that data would be left up to the operator. Advanced features of today’s forklift scales include networking capabilities and the ability to be fully integrated with smart devices, letting data be collected and immediately sent to a device with an iOS or Android operating system, or a networked PC.
The Natural Benefits of Forklift Scales
Businesses that require the completion of tasks involving heavy load liftings, such as shipping warehouses or recycling plants, already find great utility in their forklifts. The reason that forklifts are so widely used in these environments comes down to three factors:
- Operational speed
- Vehicle maneuverability
- Large volume capacity
Could Your Company Benefit from a Forklift Scale?
If your company operations utilize forklifts, and you are using said forklifts to transfer loads from a warehouse to a floor scale, and then loading them to be transported to their destination, you may not be maximizing your productivity potential. In fact, it’s entirely probable that you’re wasting valuable time, increasing your costs, and cluttering the limited floor space that is available to you. These roadblocks to efficiency can be remedied with forklift scales.
Flexibility & Efficiency
To make the most out of their forklift truck scales, it is in the best interest of companies to outfit them with on-board scales. Perhaps the most meaningful benefit to having forklifts outfitted with these scales is the ability to weigh loads literally anywhere. Instead of transporting loads to a static floor scale on the other side of a warehouse, operations can save time by collecting that weight data on-the-move. Forklift scales also have mobility which allows them to be taken directly into the railcar, truck trailer, or shipping container in which the product arrives at the facility, collecting weight data in real-time as items enter the facility.
Adding an onboard lift scale to forklifts allow operators to transfer and collect data in a single, efficient operation. Bypassing unnecessary steps in the weighing operations of your facility with forklift scales will dramatically improve the efficiency of any warehouse, and you will begin to see the benefits in the form of:
- Lower labor costs
- Lower equipment costs
- Dramatically improved accuracy in outgoing and incoming shipment weights
This forklift scale system may even make your floor scale obsolete, or at least free it up to an area of your warehouse where it makes more sense and takes up less real estate.
Walz Scale — Your Forklift Scale Solution
Are you ready to dramatically improve the efficiency of your warehouse operations with the installation of onboard forklift truck scales? Walz has been in the business of industrial scales for decades, providing operations all around the globe with the weight data collection systems they need to be successful. Contact one of our scale professionals today to find the best forklift scale solution for you! We can handle local deliveries in Illinois, and also have a national and global network of distributors, so you can rest assured that your forklift scale solution is close at hand no matter where your operation is located.
