If you are the owner of operator of any business that requires the counting of inventory, you would likely benefit from the purchase and utilization of counting scales. Counting scales eliminate the risk of human error when doing inventory counts, saving you and your business time and money.
There are hundreds of models of counting scales on the market, spanning the entire spectrum of cost, quality and technology and manufactured by numerous companies. They work quite simply; they are calibrated to recognize the weight of a single given object. For this reason, when used to weigh a large number of that same object, they compute the total weight and divide it by the individual weight. The quotient is equal to the actual number of the object being weighed by the scale.
Because counting scales look at the weight of the items you place on the weighing platform and divided by the weight of each individual item, it is absolutely essential that each item being counted is as close to the same weight as possible. Counting scales work as close to ideally as possible when counting identical items, and will not work at all if there are significant variations in the weight of the items being counted. With most counting scales, part of the calibration process will include finding the average piece weight (APW) of the items being counted. This is done by putting a large quantity of the item in question on the scale, and then manually entering the number. The scale will then determine the total weight of the items it is weighing and divide that weight by the number of items. That quotient will be the APW. It is absolutely critical to the effectiveness of a counting scale that the APW be accurate.
So, how can you determine the counting scale that is best for you meets your needs? An important first step is to determine what your needs and accuracy requirements are, and then to find a model that meets your requirements. In fact, in such cases when you are going to be weighing extremely light pieces, it may be advisable to go with a balance scale with parts counting rather than an actual counting scale. After determining your basic requirements for a counting scale, figure out what additional features you want or don’t want (for example, digital display or ability to connect to the internet). Finally, after you have narrowed down exactly the features you require, it will be easy to decide the best scale for your needs based on overall value.