At SMD, understanding your needs and delivering an engineered solution for your problems is what we do. We offer a range of off-the-shelf scales; however, sometimes those scales won’t fit your needs, or perhaps you have a vision for your own custom scale. Whatever the reason is, we have a team of engineers that are able to work with you to find your perfect solution. This can be a modification to a standard part or a complex project designed from scratch. In case your custom scale will need industrial or medical approval, we have that covered with our ISO9001 and ISO13485 certifications.
Reasons for customizing a scale often include:
- Unique size, geometry, or maximum capacity
- Integrating overload protection.
- Integrating the scale as a part of a larger project.
- Adding custom calibration electronics and lead-outs
- Protecting it from extreme conditions
- Adding wireless communications
Our 5-Step Custom Scale Engineering Process
Step 1: Understanding Your Vision
Our goal is to turn your idea into reality. We want to make sure we understand your target application in its entirety before moving forward. At this stage, Non-Disclosure Agreements are signed and ideas are shared, usually via conference calls. We like to get an overview of the project to help us foresee any potential issues along the way. We may also suggest off-the-shelf products to test our scale so you have a better understanding of our capabilities.
Step 2: Quoting Your Project
Once we have a good understanding of your project and the challenges involved, we will provide a written estimate for a deliverable prototype, which comes with a budgetary estimate for production-ready parts. This written document will give you a thorough breakdown of design objectives, delivery dates of product samples, and cost.
Step 3: Designing Your Custom Scale
Once agreed on the quote, we will start designing your scale. Many failures and risk assessments will be conducted, so the scale failing while on the field is something you won’t have to worry about. The design process can be as collaborative as you want it to be. Regardless of your level of involvement in the design process, you can expect to receive frequent progress updates during this phase. Often, engineering tradeoffs are necessary, and we want to ensure that decisions are made with a full understanding of their implications. For bigger projects, we often schedule weekly conference calls to discuss the progress, important milestones, and to keep you in the loop.
Step 4: Providing Your Product Samples
After an initial design has been approved, we will manufacture prototypes for you to evaluate. We utilize all of the manufacturing tools available to us, including rapid CNC-machining, stamping, cutting, etching, and more to get you parts in a time frame that fits your schedule. While you test the scale in-house, you will determine if the current design is perfect or you require changes to it. We will iterate the scale’s design until you are satisfied with it.
Step 5: Finalizing and Producing Your Product Design
Once we formally agree on the final design of your custom scale, we will finalize the documentation, produce the necessary tooling, and send the design to our in-house manufacturing facilities.
All of SMD's Load cells, which are used in our scales, use proprietary sputtered thin-film strain gauge technology to create a rugged sensor with exceptional long term stability. These sensitive sensors offer a wide-variety force range and are manufactured using state-of-the-art equipment.
| Features: | Applications: |
| · Compact, low profile design · High long-term stability · Low power consumption · Low hysteresis |
· Medical instrumentation, analyzing systems · Force displacement · Battery powered equipment · Food dispensing equipment |
| Key Specifications: |
| · Capacities: 0.1 to 25 lbs · 5,000 full Wheatstone bridge · Nonlinearity: 0.05% · Nonrepeatability: 0.05% · 0.05% year drift |
