Maintenance & Troubleshooting
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Rice Lake Weighing Systems
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Maintenance & Troubleshooting
Load cells are often blamed for a malfunctioning system, but 90% of the time, the
problem lies elsewhere. When powering up the system and seeing different digital
readouts that vary from the load on the system, it’s probably caused by factors
other than the load cell.
If the system can be calibrated but doesn’t return to zero, loses calibration, or
demonstrates non-linearity or non-repeatability, see the following chart for
possible causes and do the following checks.
1. Check load cell mount for debris restricting load cell movement or debris
between scale and structure.
2. Check that tank/vessel and mounts are plumb, level, and square at critical
areas.
3. Check all piping and conduit for connections which restrict vessel movement.
4. If check rods are used, loosen all connections to finger tight only for testing.
5. Check load cell cables for physical or water damage.
6. Check all electrical connections, especially in the junction box.
If the problem still is not found:
7. Check possible indicator malfunction by using a load cell simulator to input a
known good signal into the indicator.
8. Disconnect each load cell’s signal leads at the junction box and check
individual load cell outputs with a multimeter. Then check input/output
impedances for comparison with load cell manufacturer’s specifications.
