Weightru (United Kingdom) - When it comes to weighing industrial heavy goods vehicles, weighbridges are excellent tools.

And, they provide your business with quick, accurate and reliable readings if they are maintained properly.

Rather than following simple best practises, it’s important you conduct regular cleaning of your weighbridges to help maintain their performance and prevent any problems that can hinder your business’s output.

Think about it, you carry out timely maintenance on your four-wheelers and other types of machiners, so why not weighbridges?

Through regular maintenance, it will help to:

• Give your weighbridge a longer life
• Improve weighing accuracy
• Prevent damages
• Minimise repairs and costs
• Enhance operations

So, just how often should you clean and check your weighbridge?

Well, it’s recommended to include a daily inspection, then weekly and monthly routines for the best outcome.

Daily:

If you have a pit mounted weighbridge, carry out a quick visual inspection everyday of the pit to see if there is any build up of mud or dirt that could affect its performance.

As you carry out these checks, be sure to involve all employees whilst adhering to the relevant health and safety regulations.

On the other hand, for surface mounted weighbridges, the process is the same as above, except you want to check if there are any materials trapped underneath the weighbridge itself.

The reason being, for a surface mounted weighbridge to work properly, there needs to be enough space between the structure and the ground below.

For both weighbridges, you want to ensure all load cells are free from any obstructions, like mud or other debris, that can affect the accuracy of recorded weights.

Lastly, some weighbridges may include a T shaped rubber insert that sits between the main platform and surrounding surface.

Although these are designed to prevent contaminants from entering the pit, it’s best to remove these and double check for dirt and clean this away.

Weekly:

Aside from daily checks, you’ll want to conduct a weekly weighing check to identify any potential issues with the mechanics of the weighbridge.

To do this, simply record a measurement by placing a vehicle at one end of the platform and then repeat in the middle, then the opposite end.

Once done, collect the data and analyse the readings to check if there are any differences in these 3 figures.

Of course, small discrepancies are fine, but if the readings are more than 3 divisions apart, you may need specialist repair work.

Monthly:

Lastly, there are a few monthly checks to carry out, regardless of what type of weighbridge you’re using.

First, measure the platform to check whether there has been any movement to its positioning since it was last calibrated. Then, carry out the same weekly test mentioned above.

Second, take a jet wash and thoroughly clean the platform to wash away any dirt that could be compromising the accuracy of your results. Don’t forget to clean the bottom of the platform, but be careful as you don’t want to damage any of the load cells and allow water into the junction box.

Lastly, “zero” the weighbridge and complete a final end-middle-end test (like the weekly one), which will help you to compare two sets of data, making it easier to spot any apparent problems.

The Final Say:

If you avoid regular maintenance, this can result in a loss of productivity, inaccurate readings, which causes a loss in revenue, a problem with audits due to inappropriate data and ultimately, affect the credibility of your business.

At the end of the day, your weighbridge helps to achieve more efficient vehicle weighing, and simple routine checks will help to maintain the effectiveness of your machinery in the long run.