a magazine and reference tool for the weighing industry ... · winter 2009 • issue 3 • vol. 6...

Northeast unveiling

our new bus wrap design

Becoming

a wrap star

the makeover

Votefor Rice Lake’s first

truck scale centerfold

Play-by-play

mission-critical deliveries

The power

of zap 2:how to troubleshoot and

remedy power problems

A mAgAzine And ReFeRenCe TOOL FOR THe WeigHing indUSTRY / WinTeR 2009 • iSSUe 3 • vOL. 6

The RL9000TWM weigh module is available in capacities from 1,000 lbs to 450,000 lbs. The 100 percent uplift protection and self-checking (in all directions) design eliminates external hardware and provides maximum durability. The extremely low profile of the RL9000TWM weigh module makes retrofitting existing weigh vessels or installing under new vessels exceptionally easy.

The all-in-one stainless steel construction provides protection in all types of environments, and the simplicity of the RL9000TWM minimizes installation time. The RL9000TWM weighs accurately even if the base is off level as much as three degrees. The RL9000TWM comes standard with 25 feet of cable and is also available in high temperature versions (up to 400°F).

Need more information? Go to www.ricelake.com/RL9000.

www.ricelake.com

2 www.ricelake.com | RiCe LAKe mAgAzine

VOTE For your favorite

truck scale picture

4

OnlOcaTiOnDon's first job

3The almighty almond

9americas Tour

northeast region 2009

11100% cotton

The Cotton Picking 920i®

16

inSiDERlWSPlay-by-play counter-to-counter

drive-through-the-night high-five critical part deliveries

7

TEcHTalKit’s what’s inside that counts

Understanding internal resolution in a counting scale

20The power of zap 2 How to find, troubleshoot

and remedy power problems

23

editorial Staff:

melanie Al Faraj, Technical Writer

Tamala Anderson, designer

Cheryl Aune, Literature manager

Bob Chatten, Translator

matt davis, marketing Specialist

Jessica de la Cruz, Writer

melissa Hjelle, marketing Specialist

Katy madden, Senior editor

Hannah martell, designer

Kelly musil, Catalog manager

Caleb Olson, Technical Writer, Reporter-at-large

Pat Ranfranz, marketing director

Adam Sharpe, Web master

Tina Slayton, marketing Specialist

Kevin Theese, marketing Specialist

Stacy White, marketing Specialist

Kristina zengaffinen, Senior designer

rice lakemAgAzine

winter 2009 • issue 3 • Vol. 6

T H i S i S S U e

Yes, we are proud of that Made in the USA label. It will soon be appearing on many of our products from load cells to truck scales. We are equally

proud to employ 360 people in Wisconsin, and more than 40 in Connecticut and Alabama. Some of our people have been with us for more than 60 years. Some come from several gen-erations of one family. Every one of them stands behind that Made in the USA label.

This is the perfect time to present our new bus wrap design now touring the Americas. You’ll read about it inside. We are going to visit as many of our distributors and their customers as we can. Our new MotoWeigh® in-motion weighing equipment is on board as well as a lineup of amazing weight-related equipment and technology. As you will read in our cover story, the tour bus is a trade show on wheels. If you would like us to put you on our schedule, please let us know.

Vote for our first SURVIVOR Truck Scale Centerfold. We had a great response to the contest, and all the finalists’ photos are inside. We thank all of you for participating. The winner will choose between a Wisconsin winter, spring or summer fishing trip. We will be holding an-other centerfold contest soon so please keep your high definition cameras handy.

Sincerely,

Steve ParkmanChief Operating Officer

rice lake ONLINE MAGAZINEgoing green? Receive the Rice Lake magazine online. You will enjoy the same great stories plus have links to more. Also, with electronic access, you can easily share information with employees and customers.

To subscribe:

go to www.ricelake.com/ricelakemagazine, and complete the online form.

it’s that easy. if you have any questions, please email us at [email protected].

Don’s first job, not counting his paper routes, was in the same meat shop that he owns today and renamed D. W. Whitaker Meats in 1991. He waited on people and cleaned after school and weekends for the family who had owned the meat shop for 45 years. Don says, “They taught me a lot. ‘Make sure the customer is happy.’ I always wanted to have my own business and I was eager to learn.”

The meat shop is located in Cleveland’s national historic landmark Westside Market, a massive arched yellow-brick coliseum that was dedicated in 1912 as a permanent public market. The building has a lot of character, and there are more than a few colorful characters vending the stalls and shops that have been in some families for generations. There is a sense that these are not just employees—but people who seem to have a genuine relationship with the food they sell.

Don keeps that old-time, first name relationship with his loyal customers and takes advantage of the most sophisticated weighing, pricing and labeling equipment. “When I first bought the shop, I worked 60 hours and more a week. I had two employees. Now I have five people full time and eight part-time people on weekends. We’ve added so much more. Now we have homemade chicken and turkey sausages. We opened a new deli meat case in October and added two more Ishida Astra® scales that label the deli bags very neatly. We custom cut and trim our fresh pork and poultry and wrap it in butcher paper. We needed a price-computing scale that printed labels with all the food informa-tion and our distinctive logo. We needed all the equipment linked together and to a PC.”

Biro Sales Inc., Cleveland, suggested the Ishida Astra Retail Printer with Astralink® PC software. The Astra communicates via an RS-232 serial connection, and Don uses his netbook portable PC for all PLU and price updates. The operator-friendly keyboard speeds up transactions with up to 88 preset keys. Astralink PLU editing software allows customization of the operator keysheet inserts. The Astra can store hundreds of PLUs and comes standard with eight label formats.

If you go, a Westside Market veteran advises shoppers to hone bargaining skills and bring cash—small bills, fives or tens, and a shopping bag. (Whitaker Meats accepts credit cards, of course.) To get the best of these offerings you must do what your grandparents did—forge relationships. Forget how you behave at the grocery store; this is no grocery store. This is a place where your butcher knows your name; your fishmonger personally scales your fish; where you can spend 30 minutes tasting and buying cheese.

And that is the key: The energy. Pure, kinetic, unrestrained energy makes Westside Market the wonderful place it is. Haggling, deal-striking, deal strike downs, and conversation. Astra can handle it all with the ability to override a price in the heat of the bargain or block overrides for consistent pricing. There is life and energy everywhere, and it is very fun. The atmosphere makes D. W. Whitaker Meats a destination, not only a location.

Go to http://dwmeats.com and westsidemarket.org for more. ▪

O n L O C AT i O n


Our SURVIVOR® Truck Scale Centerfold contest was a great success. We received many beautiful photos of sparkling and some mud-splattered trucks on board SURVIVOR truck scales from all over the United States, Guatemala and Canada. It took us a long time to select the 20 finalists on the following pages.

Now we need your votes. Please choose three finalists as the model picture of our new centerfold truck scale poster. The winner will choose a Wisconsin winter, spring or summer fishing adventure. ▪Go to www.ricelake.com/centerfoldfishing to pick and click.

Centerfold photo contest

7 RiCe LAKe mAgAzine | www.ricelake.com

iT WAS 4:11 P.m. On A nOW FRAnTiC SUndAY AFTeRnOOn when Martin Nower, senior scale technician for 26 years with Hammel Scale Co., Kansas City, KS, called Rice Lake’s after-hours emergency service line.

“My customer had a scale down and needed it up and running yesterday. I went to his plant and found two bad load cells that we had been trying to get him to stock as it is a critical scale, but he hadn’t done so. I punched in the number, expecting to get a hold of no one. Lo and behold, Glenn answered the phone!”

Glenn Zalusky was on call that weekend. Glenn jotted down the basic details of Martin’s situation and called Chris Olsen, inside sales manager. According to Chris,

“Martin’s customer had a bagging system failure at a 24/7 plant and he was desper-ate. Martin knew Rice Lake carried a tre-mendous amount of stock, so he called hoping to pull off some type of shipment on a Sunday afternoon.

“Of course, all the normal freight distribution channels are shut down on Sunday, so we had to be creative. I logged onto the airline site and searched for outbound flights from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Kansas City. There was only one direct flight, and it was sched-uled to depart at 1 p.m. Monday. Martin said that was fine, and he would tell his customer the best he could do was Monday.”

Ten minutes later, Martin called back, “Is there anything else we can do?”

counter-to-counter drive-through-the-night high-five critical part deliveries

Play-by-play

Left to right top: Terica Schamberger, Chris Olsen and Wendy Carlson. Bottom: Russ Schnacky and dave Jalowitz.

i n S i d e R LW S


Chris told Martin there were a couple of other options, “We could start driving and meet someone from your company half way, or start the process of quoting a direct haul via a delivery service.”

“Go ahead. We need to get this up and running.”

Chris arranged through FedEx® for a hus-band and wife driving team to pick up the load cells at the plant in Rice Lake 11 p.m. Sunday, then drive all night, and deliver three cells Monday morning in Kansas City. Chris set up automated emails so all parties could track the package until its arrival in the morning.

Here is how Martin tells the story:

“A truck came from the Twin Cities to Rice Lake, picked up the cells at 11:06 Sunday night! I had the cells in Kansas City Mon-day morning at 8:45. In the 32 years I have been in the scale business I have not had service any better than this, and most of the time not nearly as good.”

At the end of that long Monday, Martin emailed Chris:

distributor who did not have a UMC600. Nor did the second-closest distributor. Terica could not find a UMC600 anywhere in Pennsylvania.

In addition to her Inside Sales duties, Terica schedules the Rice Lake tour bus visits and had recently been making ar-rangements with a distributor in Virginia. On a hunch, Terica called him, did he have the elusive UMC600?

“No.”

He looked once more and found a UMC600 with a note on it: Used.

That would not do for Terica.

It was nearly 5 p.m. when the distributor in Virginia called Terica back. He had found another UMC600! They had tested it, and it was ready to go.

The distributor in Colorado arranged to send a courier to Virginia to bring the UMC600 to the batching plant in Pennsyl-vania. Terica and Rice Lake were big heroes at the jobsite in Pennsylvania.

Russ Schnacky, technical sales specialist,

Terica Schamberger, customer service repre-sentative, tells of another urgent search for a Rice Lake UMC600 digital weight indicator. A distributor called from Colorado about a batching operation in Pennsylvania. They needed a UMC600 ASAP or the plant might be closed down. Terica called the nearest

i n S i d e R LW S

is one of Rice Lake’s two early birds. The other is Dave Jalowitz, also a technical sales specialist. Russ calls Dave and himself the

“Clean-up Crew” because many early morn-ings (they start at 6:30 a.m.) especially Mondays, they are busy answering calls about mission-critical deliveries that start

with “Where?”, “When?” and “Why?” Russ and Dave spend many of their early hours following up on previously entered orders. They physically check inventory and track shipments, proof of delivery documents, counter-to-counter deliveries and flight schedules, besides providing a calming voice and reassuring answers to those sometimes frantic early bird customers.

Wendy Carlson, senior customer service representative, recently handled a counter-to-counter load cell delivery to Alaska. She made the follow-up call to see if the cells had arrived. Yes, they did. Also—the DOT inspector blew a tire and was running three hours behind. The customer was very happy to have time to calibrate that scale before welcoming the inspector.

In that mission critical case, Mark Johnson, Jr., director of customer service, made the run from Rice Lake to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport to put those cells on a direct flight to Alaska.

Inside Sales people need to be very knowl-edgeable in order to help distributors find solutions. Working as a team, the depart-ment has a wide range of scale experts to

tap instantly to provide assistance to cli-ents anywhere in the world—at any time on any day.

They love the rush. ▪


FOR mOST PeOPLe, THe SAme imAgeS COme TO mind WHen THeY THinK OF CALiFORniA—BeAUTiFUL BeACHeS, CeLeBRiTieS, And FAmOUS LAnd-mARKS SUCH AS THe gOLden gATe BRidge. We typically extrapolate the im-ages of Los Angeles and San Francisco to the entire state; however, just east of these two California anomalies, the beaches fade to farmland, the celebrities transition to field workers and the metropolis becomes a traditional small town.

Although technically in the same state as its more publicized counterparts, the San Joaquin Valley looks more like the Midwest than stereotypical California. Stretching more than 400 miles, it lies between the Tehachapi Mountains and Redding, CA. The valley has been called the richest agri-cultural valley in the world, accounting for 25 percent of the nation’s agricultural pro-duction. Grapes, raisins, wine, cotton, fruit, vegetables and nuts thrive in this unique area. Cattle and sheep ranches also contrib-ute significantly to the valley’s economy.

Among all these, one crop has exploded in production over the past 30 years to become California’s #1 export— the almond.

As the only state commercially produc-ing almonds, and with only one percent of the nation’s farmland, one would not expect the numbers to be all that impres-sive. In the 1970s, growers worried they could not sell a 100-million-pound annual crop. That might seem like a lot, but it is peanuts compared to today’s 1.6-billion-pound almond crop. That is sixteen times

The almighty


more than 30 years ago, and each delicious little nut has to be weighed.

Why has the industry experienced such a boom in California over the past few de-cades? The old real estate adage rings true: Location, location, location. The state’s unique climate of mild winters and dry, hot summers make ideal conditions for finicky almond trees. With the huge in-dustry growth, facilities that grade, sort, weigh and package almonds have had their buildings practically overflowing.

With over 20 years of California scale expe-rience, Roger Wolfenbarger has been right in the middle of the almond explosion. He founded ABM Scale Company in 1993 and has developed a system that helps com-panies keep up with the almond demand. Roger has implemented a turnkey system at Famoso Nut Company, located in the center of the San Joaquin Valley, for sort-ing, filling, and tracking almonds.

As with most foods, the greater the size and the fewer the defects, the higher the price—the same is true with almonds. So almonds are cleaned, hulled and shelled,

USDA Almond GradesUSDA Grades Whole

Kernels Dissimilar Doubles Chip & Scratch

Foreign Material

Particles & Dust

Split & Broken

Other Defects

Serious Defects

Under-size

US Extra No.1 - 5% 5% 5% 0.5% .1% 1% 4% 1.5% -

US No 1 - 5% 15% 10% 0.5% .1% 1% 5% 1.5% -

US Select Sheller Run - 5% 15% 20% .1% .1% 5% 3% 2% -

US Standard Sheller Run - 5% 25% 35% .2% .1% 15% 3% 2% -

US No 1 Whole & Broken

30% 5% 35% X .2% .1% X 5% 3% 5%

US No 1 Pieces X X X X .2% 1% X 5% 3% 5%

almond

and sorted by similar size and quality. Samples are graded; based on that grade, the almonds might go through additional electronics to remove imperfections and attain a higher grade. At Famoso, where boxes of almonds are so prolific it resem-bles the last scene of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, there’s a lot of demand on their equipment.

“The system is only as good as its weak-est component,” says Roger Wolfenbarger. “That’s why we take the high road on every-thing we install and use Rice Lake’s Rough-Deck® wherever possible.” At Famoso, rows of RoughDecks lie beneath almond spouts in a batch-filling system. “With the quantity of almonds going through here,” Roger ex-plains, “there’s really no other scale I would trust in this environment.”

Traceability is also a big part of ABM’s Famoso system. “You can’t just have a bin out there and not know where it came from and who it belongs to,” Roger explains. That’s why he worked with ABM’s soft-ware designer, Ryan Evans, to develop the REACTS system, which automates weight certificates, traceability, and the reporting

process. By a simple scan of a barcode, RE-ACTS can determine which almonds came from which grower, and even which specific lot. That’s an invaluable service if there’s a problem with the almonds.

The demand for almonds remains undeni-ably high. They are an immensely popular ingredient because they add a perceived level of class to almost any food. With Rice Lake’s RoughDecks and the REACTS sys-tem, Famoso is able to maintain a certain high-tech sophistication of its own. ▪

Top: A row of Rice Lake Roughdecks are positioned beneath almond filling stations; (above) Roger Wolfenbarger, founder and CeO of ABm Scales, talks with Roger Kimber, Rice Lake western regional director.

O n L O C AT i O n

CALeB OLSOn, RePORTeR

Joe geisser,

northeast region director

The Big e


KATY mAdden, RePORTeR

Riding WiTH JeFF mALinOWSKi, TOUR BUS mAnAgeR, was a treat. It was so excit-ing to join the bus on its maiden East Coast tour to see firsthand how the new wrap de-sign would be received by our customers.

Rice Lake distributors, their customers and technicians loved the wrap, however they were soon walking straight past the wrap to the Rice Lake expertise on board. After the tour and demonstrations, the Q&A began and Jeff Malinowski and Steve Delaney had answers for all.

SCALe SeRviCe & SUPPLY CO., inC.RenSSeLAeR, neW YORK

We are meeting owner Charlie Twiss, his daughter Lori, and son-in-law Dean Haita. After the tour of equipment, the conver-sation turns to the Certificate Retrieval System, a web-based calibration certificate software program. They have a client who manufactures silicone parts for the auto industry. Their client has 320 scales that must be calibrated every month.

Dean remembers the switch from paper to PDAs. “The first time Scale Service & Sup-

ply used the Certificate Retrieval System, the technicians came back to the shop at noon. We asked them what they were doing back so soon. It usually took them until three or four o’clock to completely finish all the paperwork. They were done before noon and had the afternoon open for other calls. They dock their PDAs and the data is posted on our website.”

Not only is the calibration and data man-agement more efficient, they cleaned out a long bookshelf. Dean recalls, “They had two shelves all the way around the office filled with bind-ers of calibration certificates. Now they’re empty. He donated the binders to a school.”

Dean had a request for mar-keting support. He would like to have a video showing the application of the asphalt undercoating on SURVIVOR truck scales.

That video is available at www.ricelake.com/ survivorscales.

PRO-TeCH SCALe SeRviCeAmSTeRdAm, neW YORK

Craig Boehler, president, and his wife Marie Boehler, the manager who manages most everything, are hosting a lunchtime picnic with the tour bus as the star attraction.

O n L O C AT i O n

Becoming a wrap star:the makeoverOur tour bus, packed with working models of our weighing equipment and technology, has been bringing the Rice Lake trade show to distributors and their customers for the last five years. The exterior of the bus has been covered with a vinyl wrap printed to look like a speeding Lamborghini®. The design turned heads and often drew a curious crowd—who mistook us for a race car driver, a rock star, or the Ricki Lake Show.

We were missing a huge opportunity to promote our Rice Lake brand and selection. An effectively branded commercial vehicle can generate between 30,000 and 70,000 impressions per working day.

Our tour bus was due for a makeover.

Finally we settled on an idea. We covered the bus with Rice Lake magazine. not literally papered the bus with pages, of course, but used pictures and headlines from stories already published. There is a gorilla on a Roughdeck® on one side and a baby on a pediatric scale on the other. This wrap is a head-turner that still communicates Rice Lake weighing equipment. Our new rolling billboard is now touring the Americas with Jeff malinowski, motor coach manager, and Steve delaney, sales manager. ▪

Watch the new bus wrap being applied in double-time

at www.ricelake.com/buswrap.

Craig and marie Boehler (both facing camera) of Pro-Tech Scale Service, host a lunchtime

picnic and discuss common problems with grounding.

1

3

2


O n L O C AT i O n

They have invited customers from gravel quarries and waste plants, along with the county Weights & Measures Department folks. All are encouraged to take the tour and tuck into the largest Subway® sand-wiches I have ever seen.

The picnic table talk then turns to single-point grounding, especially grounding in gravel. One of the Weights & Measures De-partment directors claims, “One of the big-gest problems is having load cells knocked out by electrical storms.”

That is all it takes to start Jeff extolling Rice Lake’s five-year protection warranty. “We put $500 worth of surge protection into our truck scale systems. Our single-point ground system and transient protec-tion have eliminated lightning concerns. If our transient protection senses any-thing over 30 volts, it automatically shorts to ground. Sometimes a component may be sacrificed, but that is better than taking out a load cell.

“Even with $500 worth of hardware, it doesn’t do any good if you don’t have a good single-point ground. We want the indicator grounded to the same ground as the truck scale, the remote display and the printer. We send along with our truck scales 100 feet of copper wire for that purpose. Pic-ture a lightning strike a mile away. It trav-els through the ground to your grounding rod where you can get an extremely high-voltage surge. The copper wire makes an easier path for the spike to dissipate.”

Neil Daley, director of the Fulton County Department of Weights & Measures, says it is hard to get a good ground in gravel. “I know a guy who has to water the ground when a storm is coming.” Someone sug-gests drilling a well to get to water and a more permanent ground or using the utility ground.

I make a note to send them Rice Lake’s white paper on single-point grounding.

Jeff adds, “Maintenance is the biggest plus point to keeping any truck scale running. Our truck scales are much easier to main-tain. We don’t have bumper bolts to get hung up. We have rock guards to keep out

debris so it doesn’t freeze. Our portable scale has sec-tional clean-out plates. It is wide enough to get a shovel in there, and there aren’t any electronics to get in the way.”

nATiOnAL SCALe OF neW engLAnd, inC.SPRingFieLd, mASSACHUSeTTS

Mike Anderson takes us to visit their cus-tomer All State Materials’ liquid asphalt terminal. This is probably the largest liq-uid asphalt terminal in the eastern states. Over 4.5 million gallons of liquid asphalt are stored in heated storage tanks.

They recently purchased two Rice Lake OTR truck scales. Mike Anderson’s crew installed the truck scales in a containment pit surrounded with wooden decking ma-terial flush to the floor. Although there are several fail-safe systems to prevent spills, All State Materials wanted to be able to clean up easily should a spill happen. Then the filling equipment and building were built around the scale. It takes less than 15 minutes to completely fill a tanker truck. Pretty impressive facility, and we are proud to have Rice Lake scales as part of it.

3. Commercial Scale set up a weighing display with a Roughdeck floor scale, LaserLight message unit and 920i. Here a fair-goer adds pounds to his partner.

1. All State materials’ liquid asphalt terminal, where over 4.5 million gallons of liquid asphalt are stored in heated storage tanks. 2. After two Rice Lake OTR truck scales

were installed in a containment pit; the structure was built around the scales.

14 www.ricelake.com | RiCe LAKe mAgAzine5 6

4

O n L O C AT i O n

COmmeRCiAL SCALe & BALAnCe CO.AgAWAm, mASSACHUSeTTS

Travis Wheeler, lead service technician, and Mary Alyce Houle, administrative assistant, are taking me to “The Big E,” New England States’ fair and exposition, to see Commer-cial Scale’s amusing display.

Travis has worked with the folks at the fair for several years supplying scales for their special needs. The Big E originally called to lease a scale to weigh the sheep and giant pumpkins and measure the force of workhorse pulling teams.

Last year the fair had offered space in the Agricultural Barn for a display about

weighing. Commercial Scale set up a Rice Lake floor scale, LaserLight®

messaging unit and 920i®. Andrew Hensley, scale technician, had recently taken a training course at Rice Lake to learn how to program the 920i. He wrote a program that sends information to a LaserLight display indicat-ing what the weight of a person

standing on the scale is equal to—a bale of hay, a cow or calf, or

giant pumpkin. By the end of the three-week fair, 24,285 people had

stepped on the scale and three times that many had laughed and encouraged their friends to climb on the scale that they themselves would not go near.

The Big E runs an annual contest in search of the year’s signature fair food. The win-ner this year was a concoction named the “Craz-E Burger,” created by Martin Brownsey of West Seneca, New York. Craz-E

Burger, as served at the Big EZ Café, is a righteous–sized juicy burger with a gener-ous dollop of gooey melted cheese topped with strips of extra-thick bacon on a grilled glazed doughnut. Really. It all comes to-gether though, the glaze and the bacon, the soft sweet bread, the stringy cheese and everything else.

We each had a fresh cow’s milk shake from the stand outside the Agricultural Build-ing and rejoined the bus at the Holyoke Holiday Inn parking lot where we met Commercial Scale owner Jim Irwin and technician Jerry Gamache. They toured the bus, and Jeff did his usual great job explaining all that is on board.

The MotoWeigh® In Motion Checkweigher demonstration is new, and one can tell Jeff is fascinated with it. “There is less vibra-tion in this design, and no lubrication is needed because of the Teflon® impreg-nated Delrin® wear blocks. The Interlox® Conveyor belt has multiple sources of sup-ply making it easy to maintain. You can raise the conveyor to clean it and you can clean it while it’s running. You can weigh multiple products—just set up the tolerances and you’re good to go.”

My bus trip was a great ride. When we pulled majestically through intersections, people stared. They were not mistaking us for a rock band, but I felt a rush of heady celebrity.

At the toll booth on the interstate, Jeff pulled away ever so slowly. He said, “I don’t want to leave them in a cloud of exhaust fumes.”

That was so Rice Lake. ▪

5. Polly Hopkins, of maybe Tomorrow

Farm, Chepachet, Ri, weighs her

family’s prize Border Leicester ewe.

6. Jeff malinowski demonstrates

the motoWeigh in-motion System.

4. Winner of the 2009 Big e signature fair food competition is the Craz-e Burger. Hamburger, cheese and bacon on a grilled glazed doughnut.

800-472-6703 • www.ricelake.com© 2009 Rice Lake Weighing Systems

You will find added value with this 11-in-1 Excursion Tool that magnifies clues, measures gaps, tightens screws, cuts cords, opens cans, and orients you in the deepest woods. It is yours to keep when you purchase any of these Epson Printers:

The Epson TM-U295 is the smallest ticket printer in the world with the most user-friendly features.

The Epson TM-U590 Ticket Printer prints one to four copies on a variety of tickets.

The Epson TM-U220 Tape Printer dot matrix printer is perfect for restaurants and retail operations.

Want to know more? Go to www.ricelake.com/epsonexcursion

TM-U220 TM-U590 TM-U295

mASTeR SCALeS’ SPeCiALTY iS HARveSTing eqUiPmenT and data management systems. Their Agricultural Weighing & Data Management systems have simplified cotton and grain test plot harvesting for major seed companies and research universities. Clients include Monsanto and many university research teams and equipment buyers from the U.S. cotton states to Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Greece and Turkey.

Owner Jason McDonald’s indicator of choice is Rice Lake’s 920i®. “In our eyes, Rice Lake puts out a superior product. One factor is the 920i’s ease of setup and programming. We like the fact that we can program with a PC and check things through the front panel.

“We toured the factory in Rice Lake and compared the commitment from Rice Lake to the com-mitment we were getting elsewhere. We switched to the 920i about four years ago because it had a bigger display and gave us full control to divert air, open and close doors, replace the air diverter and move the tramper auger.

“The I/O action on the 920i is cleaner, smoother, more accurate and efficient. The operator can see the last eight weighments with iRite IDE® programming the

display.” Functionality can be customized to provide the customer with an HMI that supports their ap-

plication and can be instantly reviewed and recalculated if necessary.

O n L O C AT i O n


The 920i captures and stores a sample weight every 37 seconds.

A gust of wind—and in Texas the wind blows continually—can affect weight accu-racy. Stable weight is achieved through five filtering parameters and sample settings for environmental influences like wind.

“The standard weight is 30 pounds per plot. In some areas the standard is 50 pounds per 40 foot plot. The picker can hold 1700 to 2000 pounds of cotton or 350 plots before it dumps the load into cotton boll buggies. There is a screen in the cab and a camera is mounted on the back of the picker so the operator can see the weigh basket and monitor the process—if the gates areclosing properly and if cotton is building up under the scale.

“There are up to nine definable databases that can support as many as 20 columns per record. Before the operator har-vests the field he enters the location and range number. The first plot is 01024 then 02024 then 03024 to finally 10024, picking the rows in a serpentine pattern.

“We use 500-pound capacity S-beam load cells in the weigh basket. The cotton is blown into the main basket where a tramper auger packs it. The 920i captures a sample weight every 37 seconds and stores the data. At the end of the day the operator downloads the data on a laptop running a Windows® application called 920i Interchange® that allows the data to be transferred into Excel® in a comma delimited file, opens Excel and transports that data onto a spreadsheet.”

In a research cotton field every two rows are a different type of cotton. All but four percent do not make the weight for maxi-mum yield. Jason says the research team is out in the field taking notes from the time the cotton is planted. “They capture data like how much fertilizer and chemi-cals they use, how many blossoms, then squares, then bolls are on the plant. They want to know the lint length and tensile strength. Before this system it took up to ten people to do the same work. One driv-

er, two people to put bags on the chutes, two people to take them off when full and throw them off the field, and two people to catch the bags and throw them into trucks. Two others weighed the bags with a crane scale or a hanging scale. One researcher wrote down the data.”

That was then, this is now. Jason and Sandy Land, sales manager, are visiting Rice Lake with a group of researchers from the Uni-versity of Arkansas where they conduct grain research. The 920i will be able to handle that as well.

The flexibility of the 920i allows add-ing multiple scales, serial interfaces and memory for devices like GPS locators to capture plot coordinates.

Jason says, “We plan to install a 920i and cantilever beam load cells for the grain weigh-hopper we’re developing. Grain will be weighed after a plot of grain is cut. During the cutting process a sample will be caught separately from the main hopper. This

sample will be tested for moisture level and possibly temperature. The sample will then be weighed separately from the rest of the grain, which is also weighed. We are able to store this information in the 920i. With coordinates entered by the user be-fore harvesting, we are able to put all the location and weight data together for their studies. This will be the first time we have put together this type of system.”

Jason runs the company with his wife, Annette. “I’m the tech. That’s what I like to do. Get out of the office. The 920i is easy

to service, and Rice Lake is willing to send factory personnel to help figure out any problem. Paul Cernick, Rice Lake training coordinator, talks about customer service in his presentation. Rice Lake certainly does that.” ▪Windows and Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft corporation in the USA and other countries.

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All cotton is not created equalThe word “staple” refers to fiber length. The longer the fiber, the softer the cloth. The longer the fiber, the more difficult it is to grow and process and the more expensive. Cheap shirts made with short staple cotton go limp and become pilly when ends of the short fibers slip out of the twill.

There are five types of commercially grown cotton:

Sea Island cotton is in exceedingly limited supply and is very expensive to grow and process. very spendy men’s shirts and women’s dresses are some-times made of Sea island cotton.

Egyptian cotton has exceptionally strong fibers about 1½" long and is used in the best quality embroidery thread, the finest sheets, down bedding covers, and duvet ticking.

Pima cotton is between egyptian cotton and American Upland long staple in length and price.

American Upland Long Staple cotton is long staple only as compared to American Upland Short Staple cotton. The two varieties account for 90 percent of the world’s crop. They are easier to grow and process and are used to make cheaper goods. The thread is all right for medium quality fabrics, but poor for down-filled garments or bedding. They will eventually leak feathers. American Upland Short Staple cotton is less expensive and is suitable for denim. ▪

Left: Jason mcdonald, master Scales.Above: Five hundred pound S-beam load cells are used in the weigh basket. The picker can hold 1700 to 2000 pounds of cotton or 350 test plots before it dumps the load into boll buggies.

A waterfight to the end of bacteria and debris and the survival of the fittest equipmentRice Lake’s full line of washdown equipment includes in-motion weighing equipment, checkweighers, floor scales, bench scales, load cells, printers, indicators and balances.

Visit www.ricelake.com/washdown for more about the best system for your environment.

WASHDOWN IS GERM WARFARE

800-472-6703 • www.ricelake.com© 2009 Rice Lake Weighing Systems


COUnTing SCALeS ARe veRY Simi-LAR TO OTHeR SCALeS in TeRmS OF WeigHing, but counting scales perform two additional functions: operations in division and multiplication based on the internal resolution.

1. What is internal resolution?

The internal resolution of a counting scale is the number of divisions into which it divides the total capacity of the scale.

Example: A 50 lb counting scale with 1 mil-lion count resolution divides up the 50 lb into 1,000,000 parts. This means each inter-nal resolution is translated to 50/1,000,000 or 0.00005 lb.

All of the weights are calculated on this basis. For example, if some parts were placed on the counting scale, and the internal calculation was 210 internal counts, the weight to be displayed would be 210 times 0.00005 lb = 0.01050 lb. Since the weight display might only be five digits, then the weight display would be 0.01 lb. This is the external resolution. (rounded off).

The operator can key in the sample quan-tity—for example, ten pieces. The scale still “knows” how many internal counts are being used (210) and now divides that

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number by 10 to get the number of inter-nal counts per piece (210/10 = 21).

Next the scale needs to convert the piece weight into pounds, by simply multi-plying the weight per count times the number of counts (0.00005 times 21) = 0.00105. This is displayed in the Unit or Piece Weight window.

At this point the scale need only watch for a change in the weight and redo the calcu-lation in reverse, using the number of in-ternal resolutions per piece as the divisor. For example, more pieces are placed on the scale and the number of internal resolutions is now 187091. So 187091 / 21 = 8909.09 which is rounded to 8909 pieces.

2. What is external resolution?

This is what is displayed in the weight window of a scale. It is also called display resolution and is calculated by taking the capacity of the scale and dividing by the res-olution. In most load cell based counting scales, the external resolution will be one part in 10,000 also expressed as 1/10,000.

The displayed resolution is not as im-portant in a counting scale since the calculations are all made using internal resolution. The only time the external resolution comes into play is when a

tare weight is being manually or digitally introduced. If the value of the tare con-tainer is rounded, this can result in a less accurate count.

3. How do you size a counting scale?

The internal resolution of the scale must be, at minimum, less than or equal to the weight of one part. Best practices would require that the weight of 10 parts be equal to 0.1 percent of total capacity.

The capacity of the scale should handle the largest container of the heaviest parts. Use two or three platforms to get this range if needed.

For fast and easy sampling, the sample scale capacity should be no larger than 10,000 times the piece weight. This will allow the sample size to be at least .1 per-cent of the capacity of the sample scale.

4. What is the accuracy of the remote scale?

The unit weight determined on the count-ing scale is used to determine the count on the larger scale.

Example: A 5000 lb counting scale with 1 million count resolution divides up the 5000 lb into 1,000,000 parts. This means

It’s what’s inside that countsUnderstanding internal resolution in counting scalesBY Ann CROWLeY, PROdUCT mAnAgeR And Jim dAggOn, SeniOR PROdUCT engineeR, emeRging TeCHnOLOgieS


each internal resolution is translated to 5000/1,000,000 or 0.005 lb. However, if you are weighing a large container of light parts, an error is introduced in a larger floor scale by internal count reading by 0.005 and displayed resolution by 1 lb or .5 lb. If the parts weigh less than 0.005 each, an error will be introduced. If a large number of light parts need to be counted, they can be broken down into 100 or 1000 piece lots. Each lot will have a suitable unit weight to be counted on a larger capacity scale.

5. How many platforms do you need?

The number of platforms needed for a counting system is determined by the product being weighed and the accuracy desired. When discussing the accuracy of the remote scale, the weight of the parts to be weighed on extra platforms is an important consideration. To obtain the best accuracy, follow the steps for sizing your counting scale making sure that the sample scales are not larger than 10,000 times the piece weight. Also remember that the second scale can be used for sampling in

With resolution of 1/500,000, the DIGI® DMC-782 Portable Coin Counting Scale counts every coin every time—from mint condition to worn, stuck together or corroded. The very affordable DMC-782 is rugged and ready to weigh reliably in all environments, and can easily be moved from one location to another. With the optional 300-hour rechargeable battery on board, the DMC-782 is ideal for mobile workstations and outdoor coin collection and counting.

Want to know more? Go to www.ricelake.com/pennypincher

S TA R S T R U C K


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a three platform system. With three plat-forms, you effectively have two platform systems allowing you to sample and count smaller parts on the first and second plat-form respectively; next sample and count larger pieces using the second platform as the sample and the third as the bulk.

6. What is the difference between average piece weight and unit weight per thousand?

Let’s look at a penny. A penny weighs 0.005 lb, which would be the average piece

weight. If we were to display this as unit weight/1000 we would discover

the penny actually weighed 5.94 uw/1000 (or 0.00594 if displayed as an average

piece weight). If the average piece weight window is limited

to five digits, the unit weight per 1000 allows the significant digits to

be entered without being “crowded out” with the leading zeros. The lighter the

part, the more it affects the accuracy.

What does this mean to you? Compare the math.

5.10 lb of pennies on the scale 5.10/0.005 = 1020 pennies

5.10 lb of pennies on the scale 5.10/0.00594 – 858 pennies

See the difference in count? Unit weight per thousand allows a more accurate count.

7. What size sample should be used?

The minimum sample recommended is 10 pieces. However, here are some considerations:

Is a 10 piece sample sufficient weight on the platform? The sample should be at min-imum 0.1 percent of the total capacity.

How uniform are the parts being weighed? A larger sample size provides sufficient data to determine the most accurate unit weight. The pieceweight enhancement feature of the DIGI® scales assist in sam-pling larger sizes accurately.

Sampling 100 pieces is recommend-ed to achieve the best accuracy.

A larger sample quantity in-troduces the human element

of error, so 10 groups of 10 can be counted out by hand, and placed on the scale as a 100 piece sample.

8. How can counting scale accessories save time?

Using a scanner and printer along with a counting scale pay for themselves quick-ly by eliminating the need for repetitive sampling and handwritten information. Scanning in a unit weight, or tare weight, eliminates the possibility of the operator entering wrong information. Plus, it is faster than keying in numbers.

An external software program that interfaces with the scales allows the operator to scan the part number and begin counting imme-diately. All other information can be upload-ed and downloaded to the software. Multiple scales can be used without introducing dif-ferent information in different places, and all of the counting activity for one part number can be recorded in one place.

A label with the count eliminates the pos-sibility of transposed numbers or illegible handwriting. ▪

Be sure your parts inventory is accurately accounted for with the DIGI® DC-782 Portable Counting Scale. With an internal counting resolution of 1/500,000 even the smallest part is counted. The economical DC-782 Series is built to be moved to nearly any environment in your plant or on your route. The large platter size has plenty of room for large bins or parts. Optional rechargeable battery provides 300 hours of continuous use in mobile stations, outdoor applications and rental fleets.

Want to know more? Go to www.ricelake.com/cashinyourchips


Transient voltage protection measuresin OUR LAST inSTALLmenT (Winter 2008) we looked at a few of the possible sources of electronic equipment damage due to power transients. In this article we will further investigate ways to trouble-shoot and correct these transient condi-tions to protect electronic equipment.

Although there are four types of power anomalies, there are three ways that tran-sient voltages can enter an electronic sys-tem (including scales):

• The power source

• Peripheral ports

• Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)

The basic goal of any protection device is to divert the excess charge along a path to ground that does not include any of the sensitive electronic components that will suffer damage. This is done in a number of ways and the methods are tailored to the source of the excess voltage.

The power sourceMost electronic scales need a source of AC power. Some battery-operated units can be

The second installment of a series:

How to find, troubleshoot and remedy power problemsBY Jim dAggOn, RiCe LAKe WeigHing SYSTemS' SeniOR PROdUCT engineeR, emeRging TeCHnOLOgieS

CHUCK CROWLeY, RiCe LAKe WeigHing SYSTemS' SeniOR TeCHniCAL SUPPORT


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exempt from this type of disruption, but during their charging cycle, they become susceptible, sometimes even if the unit is turned off. Most electronic devices use a power supply that converts the raw AC power into a lower DC voltage. A linear power supply can shield against passing many transients through to the circuitry, but more modern switching power sup-plies can block many common transients also. The power source can contain any combination of surge (overvoltage for one half cycle or longer), sag (under voltage for one half cycle or longer), or transient, over or under voltage that is very short in duration (less than one half cycle), but can contain very high voltage peaks. These transient voltage peaks can be in-terpreted as logic signals which at best can confuse, and at worst destroy, high speed electronic memory and micropro-cessor components.

To determine if the power source is the problem, check for faulty wiring first.

CAUTION: Remember in all these cases that the voltage being tested is of a lethal voltage and frequency! Failure to adhere to safety procedures can cause injury or death. If you have any doubts about the techniques listed here, or if any corrective actions need to be taken, ALWAYS consult a licensed electrician

to perform the corrective measure and confirm any testing procedures you

may decide to undertake.

Most modern electronic devices are inter-

nally grounded

and protected from a static electricity discharge from any outside surface of the device. The problem becomes greatly magnified when either the grounding is subverted or the case is opened. The use of a three-to-two wire adapter on the AC cord is one of the most common ways this is accomplished. The ground pin on an AC cord and receptacle is provided to do just that—connect the device to a le-gitimate ground (see sidebar “Respect for the AC receptacle”).

If an extension cord is used, be sure that not only is the grounding pin intact on both ends, but that they are connected. Use an ohmmeter to confirm this before plug-ging in either end of the extension cord.

A simple method to check the basic wiring and to ensure that the ground, neutral and hot wires are connected properly is to use a simple tester as shown below.

These are available in hardware and elec-trical supply houses and are quite inex-pensive. Any problems that show up us-ing this test require immediate action. NO EQUIPMENT OF ANY SORT should be plugged into any receptacle showing a wiring problem.

Remember this device will only tell you if the wires are connected properly, not if the quality of the connection is good or even adequate.

Once the wiring has been tested for correct-ness, the problems of surges, sags and tran-sients need to be addressed. These will require more rigorous testing.

All three can be monitored using a device which plugs into the receptacle and moni-tors and collects information such as the voltage, fre-quency and any tran-sients outside of speci-fied norms. The data is stored and can be downloaded later into a computer for analysis.

Once the problem has been defined, the solution can be implemented.

Surges can be blocked by a simple induc-tive filter or a clamping device such as an avalanche diode. These devices are some-times found as built into an outlet strip and sometimes use a Metal Oxide Varistor or MOV. Although an MOV can be effective for a while, it does degrade over time, and after a few surge events can be rendered com-pletely ineffective with no indication that it is no longer providing protection. Using a more complete surge suppressor system provides a much more effective solution.

Sags can only be overcome by a device that can boost the power to the recommended level. This requires a more sophisticated system that provides voltage regulation such as the Sola MCR series.

Transients can be the most dangerous type of power disturbance to electronic circuits. The suppression of transients can vary from a simple combination of devices mentioned above, to a multiple stage active filtering and suppression cir-cuit as in the EL226 AC Transient Protec-tor. One of the key features to be aware of in any transient suppression applica-tion is the response time. Transients are defined as being less than half of a cycle (1/30 of a second in terms of USA electri-cal supplies) but they can be as short as a few nanoseconds (billionths of a sec-ond)! In fact, the shorter the transient, the more likely it is to simply pass right through most power supplies and enter directly into the circuitry where it can cause not only destructive damage to the components, but also masquerade as a logic spike, causing damage to micropro-cessors. That could result in intermittent and hard-to-diagnose problems later on. A few of the specifications to look for in a Transient Voltage Suppression Solution (TVSS) include: surge rating, response or clamping time, maximum continuous over voltage (MCOV), and let-through voltage (LTV).

Surge Rating: the peak surge current per mode, by phase and/or total, which a TVSS can handle without failure. Surge ratings are usually given in joules. A joule is a measurement of energy. Energy is a

Tester


Notice that the peak voltage is about 170 volts. 1.414 x 120 = 170. It is called a 120 volt supply because 120 volts is the RMS (root mean squared) value of the sine wave1. This is approximately equal to the average power. So, a let-through voltage of less than 170 volts would mean the TVSS would short out 60 times per second and fail very quick-ly. UL ratings do not allow a let-through voltage (LTV) rating of less than 330 volts. The higher the LTV is over 330 volts, the less protection the TVSS is providing.

Figure 2 shows the solutions provided by three power conditioning systems.

Peripheral portsPower variants can also enter sensitive electronics by way of the peripherals at-tached to them. The peripherals can be affected by their own power sources as dis-cussed above, and then pass those surges, sags and transients along their connection to the main device. The interface circuitry varies between protocols, but the basic fact is that wires from any source can car-ry interference and power variants from anywhere to the connected device.

The main concern here is with transient suppression. The protection device needs to be able to discern the difference be-tween the data stream and an unwanted transient. The speeds are critical and may vary much more than the standard 50 or 60 Hz power source.

These devices need to be matched to the interface protocol. The transient protec-tor for a load cell cable or a junction box “home run” cable will be very different both in configuration and circuitry than a RS-232 surge protector or an Ether-net network surge protector. Surge and/or transient protectors need to be placed on every peripheral and network connec-tion to provide complete protection for the host device. The longer a cable run is, the more susceptible it is to induced voltages that can come from any number of sources, including everything from a lightning strike as much as five miles away to an electric motor nearby or in the path

measurement of power over time. A joule is equal to 1 Newton-meter, or 1 watt-second.

The more joules, the higher a surge the TVSS can withstand. A rating of 400 or more joules is a good rating for a TVSS.

Response Time: the time it takes a TVSS to react to a transient activity and clamp to protect equipment. Response times are measured in nanoseconds or billionths of a second (10-9 or 0.00000001 seconds). The shorter the response time, the better the TVSS. A rating of less than 5 nanosec-onds is good.

MCOV: the term for the maximum con-tinuous over voltage that a device can withstand. The higher the rating, the bet-ter. This value should be a minimum of 15 percent more than the rated voltage of the equipment to be protected, or in the case of a 120VAC TVSS, 138 volts or more.

Let-through voltage: a measure of the device’s ability to protect downstream equipment. This value requires an expla-nation about AC power and sine waves.

The AC power in most 120VAC systems consists of a sine wave as shown in figure 1.

Figure 1. Sine wave

0 Vo

lts

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Peak Voltage

Figure 2. AC line disturbance solutions

Type of Disturbance

Transient Protectors Voltage Regulators Uninterruptible Power Supply

ISOBLOK/ISOBAR Our Best - EL225, EL226

MCR Series Lexition

Surge * X X

Dip X X

Brownout X X

Dropout X X

Blackout X

Spikes X X

Noise EMI/RFI X X

Note: *Will provide some protection against surges, however we recommend that transient protectors be used on lines where spikes, noise and interference occur.

1 To determine an RMS value of a sine wave, measure the instantaneous voltage at regular time intervals (for example, if the frequency of the sine wave was 60 Hertz, or 60 times per second, you could measure it every 1/1200 second to get 20 values). Next square all of the voltages at each point and add the squared values together. Calculate the average (mean) from the squared values. Finally calculate the square root of the average (mean) value. It turns out that for a sine wave, the RMS value is 1 divided by the square root of 2 or 0.707 times the peak value.

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of the cabling. Even turning off a motor can generate a large spike as the magnetic field collapses.

Proper handling of electronic componentsThe only effective solution to protect against damage from static electricity is a complete ESD protection system, includ-ing guidelines for handling, packaging, and shipping electronic components to mini-mize the possibility of damage.

Rules for safe handling of static sensitive componentsRule #1: Handle components only at a static safeguarded work station.

Handle all static sensitive components at a work area equipped with a grounded static dissipative mat and grounded wrist straps.

Test wrist straps on a regular basis to be certain the continuity is intact. When working in the field, always use portable static-dissipative mats and wrist straps. If components must be set down, place them only on the grounded mat.

Rule #2: Transport all static sensitive components in the proper static protective device.

Whenever a static sensitive component is removed from a grounded enclosure, place it in a static shielding bag. A damaged board to be returned to the manufacturer should be placed in a static shielding bag to prevent further damage in shipping. Place separate EPROMS or ICs with prongs into conductive foam or inside DIP tubes. When using static bags, fold the open end of the bag and seal with tape or a warn-ing label declaring that the contents are

static sensitive. If using clear DIP tubes or conductive foam for ICs, enclose them in a static shielding bag as well.

Pink polyethylene bags are not static shielding. These bags protect contents only from static charging within the bag. They do not protect from static discharge caused by external electrostatic fields.

For complete ESD protection, we recom-mend the laminated blue/black conductive static shielding bags. We stock the most popular sizes of these multilayer bags, and they can be reused as long as they are in-tact. Other static shielding bags, conduc-tive foam, and DIP tubes can be purchased at most electronics supply stores.

Rule #3: Make sure your supplier follows Rule #1 and Rule #2. ▪

Respect for the AC receptacleThere are three connections in a standard AC receptacle—the Hot wire, the neutral wire, and the ground connection.

The Hot connection is, as the name implies, the one that carries the current and is usually at approximately 120 vAC (volts AC) with respect to ground. (it is usually the black wire on the gold terminal of the duplex outlet.)

The neutral connection is the one that completes the path for the power from the Hot wire. it is usually the white wire on the silver terminal of the duplex outlet. This connection should be connected to ground at the distribution or circuit breaker box. neveR dePend On THiS COnneCTiOn TO Be A gROUnd. This wire is, at best, “grounded” but can develop a significant voltage with respect to ground for a number of reasons.

The ground connection is actually connected to ground in a properly configured installation. Testing this connection should always be done before depending on it. Testing should be done in the following manner:

1. Using a multimeter and inSULATed probe, set the meter to the 120 (or more) AC voltage range and connect the probes to the ground connector and a good earth ground such as a cold water pipe or other clear and confirmed ground. You should be able to adjust the meter range down to its lowest reading and not see any voltage at all. if you see any voltage reading that is stable, the ground is not up to the national electrical Code and a licensed electrician should be called in to remedy the situation.

2. if you do not see a voltage, set the meter to read resistance and check the resistance reading. it should be less than 2 ohms. if not, there is a problem that needs to be rectified by a licensed electrician. nOTe: do not attempt this step if the reading in step 1 shows any voltage or you will damage your meter! ▪

Ready to PlayIf this were football we would send in the 920i® indicator/controller at quarterback. It is all about speed and agility and controlling the game.

If we could hire the coach, we would recruit the new iQubE2

® intelligent diagnostic junction box. You can trust it to monitor load cell performance and keep mission-critical scales running.

Our unrivaled lineup of weighing equipment is the best team in the league. We have over 30,000 weight-related products and supplies in stock for immediate delivery. We are ready to play. Today.

You could win this mini trophy helmet by answering five questions at: www.ricelake.com/rlfootballhelmet.

Go for it.

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a magazine and reference tool for the weighing industry ... · winter 2009 • issue 3 • vol. 6...

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