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Would you spend $1,000, or more, on an Analytical Scale without knowing all the facts?

Of course not.  That’s why we want to help you know exactly what to look for and what to consider when choosing the right Analytical Scale for your business or lab.  A high-quality scale is a major investment, and like all major investments, you should do your homework before you make your final decision.

Here’s what you should consider when you choosing your next Analytical Scale:

If you’re involved in an industry that needs to enforce rigid standards of hygiene and sanitation, you understand the importance of using equipment that is easy to clean. Typically, your industry may be concerned with food, pharmaceuticals or agriculture. In such a situation a washdown scale will be your best investment. Whether you are using it for wet items, produce, livestock, powders, liquids, or solids, a waterproof scale can be hosed down after each use, sanitized as necessary, and easily made ready for its next application.

In the beginning, sensitive electronic scales did not last long around water.   Due to water damage, or damage from other liquids, scales would become unreliable and, once discovered, have to replaced or repaired frequently.  This made their use in certain industries or settings a problem.   

Today though, there are a variety of different types of waterproof scales. Scales that not only provide the needed accuracy in measuring, but are also durable, lasting for years instead of being repaired or replaced several times a year.   Today waterproof scales are so well constructed that they are used as rain gauges as well as in waste and water treatment facilities.  They have also proven essential for other many other businesses as well.    

This is a very serious question. Your Lab Scale stands out as one of the most important pieces of equipment within any laboratory. Some may believe one scale is as good as another, however; that's not necessarily true. Each type of scale has a specific function in mind, mostly dealing with the type of materials or specimens being weighed.

Digital Scales give the fastest weights and feature easy to read displays. They come in all shape, sizes, and weight capacities making them very versatile. On the down side, because of their internal electronics, they must be kept dry and cannot be used in humid temperatures, rendering them less desirable for field work in rough conditions.

We humans are not the only creatures on this Earth struggling with weight gain. Obesity is a rapidly growing problem for our domestic pets, particularly in cats and dogs. Much of this stems from the food we give them.

Many of us have been raised with the thought that food is love. Our mothers showed us love by feeding us great meals. So, naturally, we want to share our love with our pets by feeding them treats and people food. Our loving gesture may be doing more harm than good. Pets who live a sedentary lifestyle consume more calories than they burn which packs on the pounds.

One would be hard-pressed to find an adult who has never taken a prescription medication at some point in their lives. Perhaps it was prescribed for an acute or ongoing condition, administered in the emergency room, or given during a surgical procedure. According to Kaiser Family Foundation, a global leader in the pharmaceutical arena, U.S. pharmacies dispensed nearly 3.8 billion medications in 2011 alone. Sales that same year totaled roughly $227 billion.

The accurate determination of moisture content in materials is an essential aspect of quality control in many industries such as construction, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and agriculture. One of the industries that must measure moisture precisely is the flour industry. At every step, starting with the wheat kernel to the finished loaf of bread, precise moisture measurements must be taken to comply with industry and U.S. federal standards.

Finding the right precision scale for laboratory and industrial use requires a necessary investment of time. This period lets businesses and organizations identify what exact purposes these scales will be used for so that the right one can be found. Each scale is manufactured for different uses to provide the most accurate measurements. Using scales designed for other purposes may give decent results, but they will not be as precise as possible.

If you’re going to sell jewelry, you’ll need a scale--and not just any scale. To operate within the law, your jewelry scales are required to be certified “Legal For Trade.”

Certification by the National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP) is required for any scale that is used for commercial transactions. This includes certain types of food, pharmaceuticals, shipping services, and of course, jewelry. Basically any business that sells a product or service according to weight needs to use an NTEP certified scale or balance.

Any sportsman with a passion for the outdoors knows that the hunt is only half the fun. The real treasure is an accomplished season, a freezer stocked full of wild game, and the anticipation of many home cooked meals to come. In order to enjoy this type of lifestyle one must have the proper wild game processing equipment. An extensive set of knives, slicers, blades, and packaging materials, as well as freezer space, are all essential components of a true cook’s trade, however, a washdown scale is invaluable to the serious meat processor.

Analytical Balances are an essential part of any laboratory in need of perfect minute measurements. Torbal offers three levels of analytical balances all featuring a range of weighing capabilities. Each is built with a rugged die cast housing design, large easily accessible glass weighing chamber, and five weighing functions including density and calculation and three weighing units.

Science and technology have advanced rapidly in recent years, yet the U.S. is already experiencing a shortage of qualified workers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. While we enjoy the benefits of these advances, it seems not enough of us want to go into the related fields. This is creating some concern on the part of educators and policy makers across the country. If our schools don’t place more emphasis on STEM, who will fill these jobs and become the innovators of the future?