Weighbridge replacement is ‘All in a morning’s work’ for Weightron Engineers
Weightron engineers have replaced an ailing surface Weighbridge at a quarry in the north of England, owned and operated by an established manufacturer of building products.
The company, which manufactures and supplies concrete blocks, paving products and limestone aggregates, inherited the 15 metre, 50 tonne capacity Weighbridge when they took over the quarry in 2016. However, the Weighbridge had recently become unreliable and the steel structure was showing significant signs of wear and tear.
Unreliable weighing has a number of serious consequences for such operations. The Weighbridge is vital to the running of the quarry and, at busy times, can be used for weighing over 200 vehicles a day, in and out. Any problems can cause significant disruption to the production and supply of aggregates. In such applications, there is also a legal obligation for operators to ensure their Weighbridges meet strict legal for trade requirements.
The company has a well-established business partnership with Weightron and for this application the latter’s robust Titan Weighbridge offered the ideal replacement solution for this challenging quarry environment.
The Titan features a classic side-beam, drive-through design. The deep profile, robust longitudinal beams, together with close-coupled lateral beams, offer an extremely stiff structure. This raised beam design also removes the need for additional side rails. The above-ground load cell assemblies provide easy access and minimise the build-up of debris around the load cells. For this application, the Weighbridge was fitted with Weightron’s fully weld-sealed (IP69K) CPD stainless steel digital load cells and proprietary self-aligning mounting assemblies.
Weightron have the design and manufacturing flexibility to build bespoke Weighbridge designs, sizes and capacities, thereby ensuring ‘like for like’ exchanges can be carried out quickly and efficiently. In such applications it is vital that the level of the new Weighbridge fits exactly with the existing foundations and approach-exit concrete ramps, thereby removing the need for structural changes.
The whole replacement process and calibration took only a few hours. Firstly, the Hiab crane on the Weighbridge delivery vehicle was used to remove the old Weighbridge. The foundations were then checked and cleaned before the new deck was craned into place and the load cells, featuring rodent-proof cables, fitted and levelled. The Titan design includes integral conduit for the load cell cables, providing essential protection from damage. Weightron are certified for the self-verification of Weighbridges and calibrations, using their own calibration vehicle, are carried out in strict accordance with the UK Weighing Federation’s Calibration Code of Practice. Therefore, the Weighbridge calibration could be carried out without having to wait for third party resources.
The quarry manager is very pleased with the outcome: “We have worked with Weightron for a number of years and were confident they could come up with a sustainable solution. It is vitally important that the new Weighbridge provides long-term reliability and accuracy, whilst in parallel it was important that the upgrade should be carried out with the minimum of site disruption. To achieve this Weightron carried out a thorough site inspection prior to the manufacture of the new Weighbridge and were more than pleased to accommodate our request to fit the replacement on a Saturday morning. The new weighbridge system now operates with Weightron’s DD700 weight terminal and versatile Winweigh Software. This integrates directly with our proprietary accounting system, providing detailed weighing information relating to product, haulier and vehicle.”
