Crane scales play a critical role to ensure safety and deliver accurate load measurements. When used properly, crane scales can help prevent or limit unsafe conditions by providing a real-time measurement of the operational load to operators and safety systems.

Not sure which cane scale might be best for your facility? Here is an overview of how to decide based on your goals and needs.

Determine Your Overhead Weighing Goals

The first step in choosing a crane scale is to determine what your weighing goal(s) is.

1. Load Monitoring

Load monitoring aims to prevent crane accidents, ensure compliance, maintain employee safety and protect equipment by ensure a crane is only loaded with weight within its limits while adhering to other safety considerations.

2. Process Control

Process control aims to deliver accurate weight readings. This is done with real-time information and integration with manufacturing data acquisition systems.re.

3. Data Integration

Systems that achieve this goal strive to increase informational exactness and control, stream data from the weighing system to the customer database program, offer the ability to go paperless and eliminate or reduce human error.

Types of Crane Scales

Here are a few common types of cranes and applications they are ideally suited for.

1. Monorail Hoist

The most common type of hoist, a monorail hoist uses a chain hoist or block with wire rope or cable. Highly versatile and with a high weight capacity, monorail hoists are most commonly found in industrial facilities.

2. Jib Crane

A jib crane scale features a horizontal member supporting a moveable hoist. They are commonly used in workstation applications and machine shops.

Jib cranes are also useful in production and shipping when there is a need to weigh smaller machine parts during or after production to check the weight of the shipment.

3. Bridge Crane

With a bridge crane, the trolley moves laterally while the bridge moves longitudinally. This offers a wide range of motion, making it easy to integrate into a wide range of weighing systems and ideal for safety.

4. Rail Mounted or Rubber Tire Gantry

Frequently found in factory applications such as steel yards, paper mills and other heavy industrial facilities, the rail mounted or rubber tire gantry has similar movement to a bridge crane.

They are common on rails or tires, as well as in heavy capacity weighing industries, where capacities can range from one to 200 tons.

5. Semi Gantry

A semi gantry is essentially a gantry crane with one end of the bridge rigidly supported on one or more legs that run on a fixed rail or runway. The other end of the bridge is supported by a truck running on an elevated rail or runway.

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Active Scale provides digital battery-powered crane scales and tension dynamometers in capacities varying from 500 to 500,000 lbs. including high heat resistant models for use in foundries. Many of our models are available with wireless handheld or wall mount indicators capable of units, zero and tare function.

Whether used in shipping, material handling, foundries, shipyards, construction or freight applications, Active Scale’s brand of trusted overhead weighing solutions assists in creating safe and efficient operations.

Contact us today to get started with purchasing or renting a new crane scale for your business.