Getting good advice when installing an axle weighbridge is vital. Putting it in the wrong location, not taking account site conditions, traffic or intended use might lead to an expensive mistake.
Which is why Axtec take
time to thoroughly understand what a system is going to be used for, where and
by what vehicles.
Recently we were approached by a client needing to weigh
vehicles for Type Approval purposes. The multi axle vehicles they were weighing
meant that a dynamic axle weighbridge was called for.
A dynamic axle weighbridge needs perfectly flat approaches
for a vehicles length either side of the platform because compensating axles
will transfer weight from axle to axle when driver over uneven ground.
We discussed the application, vehicles and location with the
client, surveyed the area and submitted a quotation for an installation that
would do the job perfectly.
But someone was giving alternative, incorrect advice. It was
suggested that the system only needed 3m either side of the platform to be
flat. That it was ok to drive the front axles over the platform while the back
axles were being driven over a roller brake tester. And that it would be ok to
weigh the rear axles with the front axles travelling down quite a steep slope.
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| Axtec Dynamic with correct high tolerance approaches |
But the client was basically being told that the vehicle and
weighing machine could defy gravity.
Clearly this was incorrect and to install the system in such
a way would have resulted in serious inaccuracies and not met the criteria for
Type Approval weighing.
Even worst, the cost to correct it would be more than the
cost of doing it right in the first place.
Weighing axles is not the same as other forms of weighing. Only
one axle is on the weighbridge at a time and the rest of them are on the road
surface either side of it. If the approach and exit to the platform isn’t to
the right tolerance then serious weighing errors will be the result.
Advice from us on how to install a system is always free.
And it will always be the right advice.
