Check Scale - Data Collection

Data Collection

There is also a requirement under the European Average Weight System that data collected by checkweighers is archived and is available for inspection. Most modern checkweighers are therefore equipped with communications ports to enable the actual pack weights and derived data to be uploaded to a host computer. This data can also be used for management information enabling processes to be fine-tuned and production performance monitored.

Checkweighers that are equipped with high speed communications such as Ethernet ports are capable of integrating themselves into groups such that a group of production lines that are producing identical products can be considered as one production line for the purposes of weight control. For example, a line that is running with a low average weight can be complemented by another that is running with a high average weight such that the aggregate of the two lines will still comply with rules.

An alternative is to program the checkweigher to check bands of different weight tolerances. For instance, the total valid weight is 100 grams ±15 grams. This means that the product can weigh 85 g - 115 g. However, it is obvious that if you are producing 10,000 packs a day, and most of your packs are 110 g, you are losing 100 kg of product. If you try to run closer to 85 g, you may have a high rejection rate.

EXAMPLE: A checkweigher is programmed to indicate 5 zones with resolution to 1 g:

1. Under Reject.... the product weighs 84.9 g or less
2. Under OK........ the product weighs 85 g, but less than 95 g
3. Valid........... the product weighs 96 g, but less than 105 g
4. Over OK......... the product weighs 105 g, and less than 114 g
5. Over Reject..... the product weighs over the 115 g limit

With a check weigher programmed as a zone checkweigher, the data collection over the networks, as well as local statistics, can indicate the need to check the settings on the upstream equipment to better control flow into the packaging. In some cases the dynamic scale sends a signal to a filler, for instance, in real-time, controlling the actual flow into a barrel, can, bag, etc. In many cases a checkweigher has a light-tree with different lights to indicate the variation of the zone weight of each product.