It's A Shame To Lose Profits To Over-Packing—When These Scales Can Prevent It So Easily

TOKYO, Japan - Sept. 25, 2016 - PRLog -- A&D Company, Limited, a multinational manufacturer of weighing equipment for laboratory and industrial use, has recently released the cousin to their popular HT series of compact scales: the HT-CL series. Most notably, the HT-CL series features a comparator function with three-color LED lights, which immediately indicates whether the weight measured is too low (red), just right (green), or too high (orange) by comparing it with the set upper and lower limits.

This feature provides users such as workers at fruit or vegetable pack-houses with two benefits: speed and accuracy. Imagine how much faster and more accurate the process will be if all you have to do to measure the correct quantity is watch the color of the LED light up instead of reading a numerical value on the display and judging whether it is within the designated pack weight specification levels for yourself. In other words, it can increase profits by enhancing throughput while simultaneously reducing loss due to over-packing.

How an unexpected success led to the development of the new scales

There is a rather ironic background to the birth of the HT-CL series. In November 2013, A&D released their first IP67 (submersible) compact bench scales called the SJ-WP series. This product was (and still is) targeted toward the food processing/service industry where sanitation is people's primary concern, as it allowed users to soak and wash it directly in water with ph-neutral detergent.

To the developer's surprise, however, the SJ-WP series saw its huge success not so much in the food processing/service as in the farm industry, particularly in Australia. In just about a year after the launch, more than a thousand units of the SJ-WP series were sold to Australian pack-houses, for the product also boasted a high-speed weighing and multi-colored LED comparator lights. To attest to its impact, the Queensland Government's Department of State Development Infrastructure and Planning reported a case study showing how 30 units of the SJ-WP series prevented a 5.5% total crop giveaway at an Australian strawberry farm, generating full payback in just one week (cited from Queensland Strawberry Industry Newsletter Vol. 35, September 2014).

Then soon after the unforeseen success of the SJ-WP series, A&D received a strong request from their subsidiary in Australia for a smaller, more affordable scale with a similar comparator capability. They said that while some of the SJ-WP series' features fit in exactly with the potential need of many packing sheds, there were also users who didn't really need the weighing pan as large as the SJ-WP series' and preferred a scale with a lower profile because they only measured small fruits or vegetables.

Fortunately, A&D had perfect scales to use as a base: the HT series of compact scales that had been popular in education and other markets for several years. They simply added the comparator function and LED lights to the HT series and named the product the HT-CL series (CL standing for Comparator Lights).

Negative comparison and other useful features

As with the SJ-WP series, it is possible to set the upper and lower limits of the comparator in either positive or negative values. When set in negative values, the scale shows whether the weight taken out from (instead of added to) the container is within the limits. This is convenient for measuring out a relatively small quantity of objects such as toppings in succession.

Of course, the HT-CL series is not just about the comparator function but also offers various other useful features, most of which are inherited from the HT series. For example, it comes with three color bars (red/green/orange) to be attached to the weighing pan. Using different colors, it is easy to sort the scales by purpose, owner or point of use.

The scale can operate with either the provided AC adapter or four AA batteries (for approx. 450 hours using alkaline batteries with comparator lights OFF, or approx. 220 hours with comparator lights ON—the scale displays the remaining battery level so that the user can prevent the batteries running out unexpectedly while in use). To avoid wasting power, the auto power OFF function switches the display off automatically when the scale is left in a stable state for 5 minutes. Both the color bars and AC adapter are housed neatly in the scale's carrying case, which can be stacked to save space when multiple units are to be stored.

The user can select and keep ready for use any number of units from gram, ounce, troy ounce, pound-ounce, pennyweight, metric carat, catty-tael (HK general/HK jewelry/Taiwan), tola and Newton (the comparator function cannot be used with pound-ounce or catty-tael, and pound-ounce is not available with the HT-300CL). The key lock function can inhibit setting upper and lower limits for the comparator and changing the unit of measure to prevent operators from making changes to the scale settings. There is a security slot in the rear of the scale to accommodate an off-the-shelf (such as Kensington) anti-theft lock to prevent the scale being lost or somebody taking it away without permission.

There are four models in the HT-CL series: HT-300CL (310 g × 0.1 g), HT-500CL (510 g × 0.1 g), HT-3000CL (3100 g × 1 g), and HT-5000CL (5100 g × 1 g). An optional stainless steel pan is available.

Additional details can be found on the A&D website at http://www.aandd.jp/.