Equipment Buying Guide: Weighing and cubing basics

Simply determining how much an item weighs requires nothing more than a basic bench or floor scale.

Bench scales, which work like typical bathroom scales, are used with items that weigh 200 pounds or less, says Don Halbert, global product manager for Avery Weigh-Tronix (877-888-1646, www.wtxweb.com).

Larger items are usually placed on floor scales. These high-capacity scales can be recessed into the floor or surrounded by ramps, Halbert says, allowing lift trucks and pallet jacks to drive onto them. More basic designs sit above floor level and require lift truck drivers to deposit loads for weighing and then pick them up again.

These scales are often located near the receiving dock to monitor inbound inventory. They can be used to ensure the weight of incoming packages and pallet loads matches the declared weight or to ensure unit loads are within the weight limits of the racks where they'll be stored.

At the shipping dock, scales are used to document the weight of outgoing freight or to confirm that returnable containers are empty before they're sent back to a supplier.

Many of these processes can be made more efficient, Halbert says, by integrating scales with materials handling equipment such as lift trucks and pallet jacks. Equipping a pallet jack with a scale, for example, saves operators the time and effort of walking to a dedicated floor scale to weigh loads between operations.