Portable weighbridges: operating features and applications

• Take measurements where the flow of loaded vehicles is small and steady.
• Set up a weighbridge on site quickly, and move it easily to a new location.
• Weigh passing trucks in short order, when there's no time for lengthy construction work.
• Save on investment where there's no need for a high weight limit.

For all these situations, portable weighbridges turn out to be the most sensible choice, ideally meeting every requirement. There are solutions available for mid-size trucks too, up to 30 tonnes. Weighing axle by axle does complicate the process, admittedly, but not by much. That is, for vehicles averaging around 20 tonnes going through weighing, buying a portable weighbridge is a reasonable way to solve the problem. Though high demands on how fast the cargo moves through can get in the way. Measuring a vehicle's weight on a portable scale turns out to be fairly slow and involved. Sometimes unacceptably slow. Even so, small farms, small building sites, and mid-scale production facilities don't usually demand much speed in processing loads. Nor is the tonnage of the vehicles in these fields especially large. What does come to the front of the priority list is cost savings, and purchasing often has to be planned in a rush. In other words, the budget is tight, the weighbridge needed to be up and running yesterday, and the business simply can't afford the cost of building and installing a pit scale.

So what should you choose?

Portable scales, of course — in this case the choice is pretty obvious. Another clear point in favour of choosing a portable weighbridge is how versatile it is in use. Axle-by-axle weighing suits vehicles of any size and nearly any configuration. Some models can even weigh most small and mid-size vehicles whole. Either way, the accuracy comes out quite high, and the complexity of the operation is kept to a minimum. Not always, but fairly often, mobility of the design turns out to be an important requirement.

Do you need to bring the weighbridge to a site, set it up quickly, take measurements, take it apart just as quickly, and start the next working day already at a different location? Then hardly anything but a portable weighbridge will do. Such scales can be set up in literally a few minutes, and their own weight is light enough to move on an ordinary flatbed "Gazelle" truck. In principle, the advantages listed above spell out pretty clearly where portable weighbridges belong. Can this option be called universal, usable everywhere? Hardly.

But in many cases, certain qualities of these scales turn out to be simply irreplaceable. The choice here, of course, comes down to the requirements and specifics of your particular situation, and the tasks set before you. Either way — consult the professionals.