Scales Spares And Services (United Kingdom) - How Often Should You Calibrate Your Weighbridge?

It’s important to keep your weighbridge calibrated to check the correct weights. Without this accuracy, many things will be compromised, including the price of the cargo being carried and the decision to drive on specific roads with weight limits. You should certainly check the weighbridge on a regular basis to be certain it is accurately weighing the lorries that come along.

Accuracy Factors:

There are several parts to the weighbridge that will affect how accurate it is. These include:

• Machinery quality (including load cells, instruments, and mounting hardware)
• How well the calibration was done
• Design of the weighbridge
• Quality of the weighbridge

In order for the calibration to remain accurate, it’s important to maintain the weighbridge to ensure you know it is in good condition.

How Often to Calibrate the Weighbridge:

Your weighbridge should be calibrated frequently. If your weighbridge is not within legal tolerances, you could end up with fines and even having the weighbridge shut down. Since this is largely based on how often you calibrate the platform, you will need to ensure it is done often enough to keep your tolerances in line.

Ideally, you’ll check the weighbridge every six months and do a calibration each year. If you replace any parts, you’ll need to do another calibration after the part has been installed.

The calibration tests will check and set the zero point, the maximum capacity, and the linearity and hysteresis. It will also establish the eccentric error for corner loading. Remember that if you accidentally overload vehicles due to a poorly calibrated weighbridge, you’ll still get fined, whether it was accidental or not.

Stay on top of your maintenance schedule to ensure the weighbridge is in optimum condition. You don’t want to end up with scales that are not functional or that misread the weight.