NURSERY STORE AND GARDEN CENTRES
CASE STUDY 10: SC3: 2 INDEPENDENT WEIGHING CHANNELS SAVES TIME AND ENSURES ACCURACY
There are several options when it comes to purchasing a forklift scale. Like so many other products industrial or other price and quality vary greatly. However, one thing is common to all other scales and that is it is sold and functions as a read-out scale only. Here at IVDT our approach is different. As the material handling industries leading supplier of onboard forklift scales our approach is different. Our expertise is not only in the engineering and manufacturing of hydraulic weighing systems but also our expertise in the material handling industry itself. We do not just design read out scales we design onboard weighing systems that provide industry best accuracy in very specific but common material handling applications. Let us give you an example.
IT ALL HAPPENS IN THE YARD
Between 20-30% of material handling applications require the use of fork extensions. Palleted product of varying lengths require different size forks to safely transport the load. Forklift extensions are a safe, affordable and practical solutions to this application as changing out actual forks would be time consuming and the potential for injury would increase. One or our customers in the yard and garden center business with a focus on rural agriculture can swap forklift extensions several times throughout the day depending on the type of product. Most skids are 48”x48” but depending on products such poly drainpipes, foundation rebar and below ground irrigation systems pallet lengths can get up to 96” A good portion of their palleted SKUs are not just in the warehouse but are stored in the yard. On top of this typical garden center layout is the requirement to weigh the product for shipping/receiving as well as point of sale in the yard. That’s where we offer more integrated solutions.
SC3 WITH (2X) INDEPENDENT WEIGHING CHANNELS
It’s understood that the business requires an onboard forklift scale to meet the day-to-day activities that drive the business. The fact that it uses forklift extensions several times throughout the day presents a unique problem. Every time they put on the forklift extension the calibration of the scale is off because of the additional weight of the forks. In problem is the time it would take to calibrate the scale multiple times per day, especially when customers are waiting to purchase product. Even worse would be that the scale is not recalibrated at all, and the presented weights are not correct, this would have a definite impact on both business and the customer. That is why just any readout scale will simply not work. Our heart of the line SC Classic Series offers the SC3 which comes standard with 2 independent weighing channels. This allows the garden center to calibrate once with regular forks and a second time with forklift extensions. During the day depending on the loads lifted and the requirement to use extensions they just have to toggle between right setup. This ensures maximum productivity and response time. It also ensures accuracy as not calibrating the scale to the correct forks is not an issue.
The SkidWeigh Classic SC3 although a material handling designed weigh scale is not just for garden centers. It is designed for all industries that require a front end change up like attachments on ‘quick disconnect’ carriages. From an added safety standpoint all SC Series weigh scales come complete with overload notification as a standard feature.