Beginning July 1, 2016, container weight verification will be required for all marine shipments, as mandated by the International Marine Organization (IMO). According to IMO, “the responsibility for obtaining and documenting the verified gross mass of a packed container lies with the shipper.”
In circumstances where the shipper does not declare the correct container weight, then a third party, such as the terminal, shall weigh the container and charge the shipper. Shipments loaded onto a carrier without the recorded weight may not be covered by the shipping line’s maritime insurance.
“This is a very important piece of regulation that has been needed for years,” says Terry Wickman, president and chief executive officer of Keytroller, a supplier, manufacturer, and designer of electronic safety and weighing devices. “Without knowing the true weight of containers, a slew of issues can arise, including unsafe vessel imbalances.”
For weighing systems to meet IMO standards, they must be certified and calibrated. According to Wickman, it’s important that accuracy and durability are of the highest concerns.
Keytroller recently unveiled a highly accurate hydraulic scale ideal for terminals. The Precise Hi-Accuracy Forklift Scale offers weighing precision nearly as accurate as carriage or fork load cell scales, but at half the cost. Additionally, the product is water-resistant and designed to withstand severe applications. The scale is equipped with a 4.3-inch color LCD touchscreen and solenoid-operated bypass module.
Operation of the scale is simple:
When an operator is ready to weigh a load, he/she raises the load to the level of the magnetic sensor, which beeps, alerting him/her to start the weighing process.
When weighing begins, a horizontal line on the display gives the operator a reference as to the load’s full-capacity percentage for the forklift.
When a load picked is above the pre-programmed full-capacity percentage threshold, the unit will warn the operator. If the overload continues, the optional external siren alarm will sound. The devise will automatically store the time and date of the previous 10 overload events in the memory log.
Hydraulic fluid under pressure bypasses through the module, past the sensor, where it samples hundreds of pressure readings. This process removes most pressure inaccuracy associated with single-reading conventional hydraulic scales. This technology enables the product to maintain a 0.2% maximum deviation.
Users can name up to 100 different channels—such as aluminum scrap or XYZ Inc—as well as total each channel’s gross weight, tare weight, and net weight. Further, an operator can input a reference to each weighment (such as part order number, invoice number, or customer name). Each channel stores up to 1,400 events with independent identifiers entered for each weighment.
Weighing data can be removed with a USB stick or by removing the SD memory card. All weighing event log data is time- and date-stamped and can be exported to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, where the data can be manipulated into reports, graphs and charts.
Go to www.keytroller.com for more information.
