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• Doctors Scales
• Detecto Scales
• Analytical Balances
• Moisture Analyzers
• Price Computing Scales

An analytical balance is a beam balance that has an incredible amount of precision. It is used in scientific laboratories across the globe as a tool for weighing chemicals. It is most often used in quantitative chemical analysis. It can typically measure the mass of an object to an accuracy of plus or minus .0001 grams. However, analytical balances can usually only measure small samples up to 320 grams.

The weighing pans that are used for such high precision weighing are enclosed inside transparent enclosures with doors. This is to prevent dust from collecting inside the pans and affect the weight measurement. The dust can also affect the parts that are used for weighing – such as knives and bearings. Metallic dust is especially harmful to these parts. The enclosure also keeps air currents inside the room from affecting the operation of the balance. Analytical balances are extremely sensitive and because of this sensitivity, they must be used and maintained properly.

When a laboratory orders an analytical balance from a reputable retail provider, it is important to assemble the balance properly. There are incredibly important knife-edges and delicate parts that should all be packed separately for shipping. When assembling a balance, it is important to move slowly and carefully and steady your hands against a solid object. Make sure before you start that you know where all the parts go and how to get them in place without extreme force. Be extremely careful of the knife-edges that should be packed separately. A tiny blow of these knifes against any edge can ruin them.

Other factors to consider before and during assembly are that the balance should be solidly and very firmly supported on a bench or table. This bench or table should be mounted to the floor or to the wall for extra support. It should be placed in a location free from vibration. Some balances come with built-in vibration dampers but if not, mounting it on a heavy slab with sponge rubber cushions to eliminate vibration is recommended. The balance should also be protected from air currents and temperature. When the door on the balance is opened it should not have any exposure to wind or drafts. It should be away from flames, chemicals and extreme temperatures so that convection currents cannot set up inside the enclosure and affect the measurements. Even high-powered lamps can cause a temperature change great enough to get the balance off. A 30 to 50 watt lamp a few feet from the case should not cause any great problems.

In order to protect the balances from dust, temperature and air currents many laboratories have found it advantageous to install rooms, with air conditioning for maintenance of constant temperature and humidity. This just depends on the level of accuracy your lab might need from the analytical balance.

Any scientific laboratory or other entity needs to take all of the above into account when unpacking, determining a proper location and setting up the balance to ensure proper weighing and mass measurements of these small compounds and chemicals.

• Counting Scales
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• Hanging Scales
• Medical Scales for Sale

Running a warehouse has its challenges. Whether juggling “hot shot’ orders from customers that need a product yesterday, stocking incoming shipments, or finding mislabeled freight, there is always something to do. It takes years of experience and hours in the driver seat of a forklift to know all there is to know about the operation, but one can manage to contribute after a short training period. Our warehouse has one manager, three shift supervisors, and twenty-one hourly employees.

As the Warehouse Manager, I have many duties beyond that of a regular employee. A few of my paperwork responsibilities are reconciling invoices, entering weekly payroll, making crew schedules, adhering to the established budget, and developing training materials. I am also tasked with monitoring safety initiatives – a critical piece of the puzzle.

In 2009, I commissioned a new Warehouse Management System from a local vendor to bring our operation into the 21st century. Prior to adopting this system, we used paper invoices and bills of lading. With the new system, our personnel have hand held scanners that they use to receive and load out freight. This allows us to report in real time the whereabouts of any item we have in inventory. The corporate office and our customers have really been impressed with our ability to tell them exactly where a package is in our warehouse. It has also made stocking the racks with incoming shipments less of a guessing game. We have saved the equivalent of 2 full-time employees worth of man hours this past year with these new efficiencies. In this economy, that is certainly nothing to scoff at.

From an operational standpoint, I am responsible for ensuring that the dock equipment gets regular maintenance, ordering replacements if they are no longer functional, and dealing with third party contractors that may come in to service the equipment. Our biggest expenditures this past year were placing two of our six forklifts at a cost of $10,000 each. We also ordered ten new racks at $4,000 each and two new floor scales at $1,000 each. These floor scales were an absolute necessity for the operation. They are pallet-sized and hold up to ten thousand pounds each.

In order to receive freight from an incoming truck or container, we have to verify the weight of the pallet, crate, box, or sack. Without the ability to verify the weight of the shipment, we could overload our racks or our out going trucks. That could lead to an accident, which could cost someone their life. We aren’t willing to risk that.

From an economic perspective, if our customer says they shipped 2 tons of a product worth $3,000 a ton, it matters if we turn over only one ton of product to the next leg of the trip. We might have to eat the $3,000 shortage. For this reason, we verify everything.

The typical shipment starts and ends at the loading dock. This is where the dock personnel unloads a truck and receives the goods. Immediately after taking the item from the truck, it is scanned with our new handheld device and placed on our industrial grade floor scale. We verify the weight and then the dimensions of the container and double check the bill of lading number. We then stock the item based on the map displayed on the handheld. When we get an order for the outgoing item, the process is reversed.

Working in the warehouse allows you to contribute to the success of a company in a hands-on way.

We moved into our new home two years ago, and it has been a dream come true. It’s a beautiful three bedroom, two-bathroom ranch style house complete with all of the upgrades. So far, the upgraded granite countertops have been wonderful. The ceramic tile floors in both bathrooms, the kitchen, the laundry room and the entryway are beautiful. The garden tub is the perfect spot to soak after a long day at the office. The fireplace is… well, to be quite honest, it’s spotless. Never been used. For the first six months that we lived here we sat our infant son’s swing in front of it and tried to hide the fact that we had a lovely fireplace that we had no idea how to use.

When we were building our home, we just had to have the fireplace. We had visions of warm crackling fires, sitting in our cozy chairs, sipping on a nice glass of red wine reading a good book and relaxing. When we moved in, we got the reality check. We live in Texas. Besides the fact that there are only a handful of days every winter that are actually cold enough for a fire, neither one of us have any idea how to even make a fire! And if we did make a fire, we’d have to be on high alert to make sure the kids didn’t get into it and accidentally hurt themselves. Someone would have to clean up the mess, and we’d have to maintain the chimney. Somehow that did not sound like the relaxing visions we’d cooked up. So like many homeowners, we ignored the fireplace and just chalked it up to a bad decision.

The answer to our fireplace dilemma came to me one day when I was lounging in my yoga pants having some coffee one weekend morning watching some Home and Garden Television. I saw one of the designers put an electric fireplace in the home-owner’s bathroom. Wait a minute… Electric fireplace?!?! I was intrigued! Lo and behold, I found the answer to our fireplace dilemma! We needed to get an electric fireplace insert, and we needed it fast!

We opted for an Electric Log Insert. We only spent about $250 and it was easy to install. We just popped the insert in, plugged it in, and our previously unused fireplace was suddenly a delightful focal point in our living room. Since most of the time, we do not need to create any added heat in our home, we can operate our insert without heat and still enjoy the ambiance of the flame effects. The handy remote lets us adjust our “fire” from the comfort of our cozy chairs.

The best thing about our new electric fireplace insert is that we get all of the perks with none of the fuss. We can use our fireplace any day of the year, and there’s no messy clean up or risk of burning anything (or anyone). We could not be happier with our once unused fireplace now that we’ve found a great way to enjoy it.