The Full Guide On How To Clean and Maintain Your Weighbridge
Discover our full guide on how to clean and maintain your weighbridge! Make sure you are caring for your weighbridge so it will last for years!
Wondering how to clean and maintain your weighbridge? Want to ensure your weighbridge remains efficient and accurate?
While a weighbridge can be a useful tool when working correctly, they can cause a lot of problems if they’re not maintained and cleaned on a regular basis. In order to prevent extensive repairs and keep weighbridges accurate and efficient, you need to take the maintenance and care of your bridge seriously.
Fortunately, we’ve got you covered. Below is our full guide on weighbridge care, cleaning, and maintenance.
Why You Should Clean a Weighbridge Often
There are many reasons that it’s important to clean your weighbridge on a regular basis.
While a weighbridge serves an important purpose when it comes to capturing weight data, it can become dirty over time. The functionality and efficiency of the bridge may end up suffering as a result. As dirt, mud, water, and other types of debris accumulate it may impact the accuracy and strength of the weighbridge.
If your weighbridge isn’t well-maintained, inaccurate weighing can become a problem and you won’t be able to count on its reliability. Because of this, it’s important to eliminate build-up, and if possible, prevent it from accumulating in the first place.
When to Clean a Weighbridge
To keep your weighbridge in the best condition, it’s important to keep a consistent schedule with maintenance and cleaning. It’s best to set a regular schedule of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks to ensure that your bridge stays in great shape and accumulates as little dirt and grime as possible.
Preventive maintenance is key, so it’s important that you stay on top of your maintenance and cleaning schedule. This will help increase its longevity and will reduce the chances of inaccurate readings. to ensure that it stays in good shapes and increases longevity as much as possible.
In some cases, you may need to hire professional cleaning services if the weighbridge experiences significant damage or buildup of debris. Specialist cleaning companies have the right equipment and reliable staff that can safely clean a weighbridge without causing damage to any important parts.
Weighbridge Cleaning – Daily Tasks
Daily routines are important for keeping a bridge clean and well-maintained. However, the type of maintenance will vary based on the type of bridge you have.
Pit Mounted
If you’re maintaining a pit mounted weigh-bridge, then it’s important that you check to ensure that there is an adequate gap located between the pit wall and the deck and that the clearance is clean. You’ll want to visually inspect the pit area under the weighbridge to determine whether any dirt or debris has built up underneath.
Unchecked water, debris, mud, and build-up can cause functionality problems, so it’s important that you check it thoroughly. During this entire process, you should also ensure that you follow all necessary safety precautions.
Weighbridge ‘T’ Section Placement
A weighbridge that has a ‘T’ section placement will have a reduced amount of buildup by design. However, you’ll still want to check it daily to ensure that the rubber section is fitted correctly. If the rubber insert is not correctly in place, it may not adequately prevent debris, mud, and other types of buildup from accumulating.
Be sure that you check this rubber section occasionally to ensure that it’s in working order and take the time to check underneath for buildup just in case. If you notice that it has become damaged, you’ll want to make sure to replace it immediately.
Weighbridge Surface Mounted
When maintaining a surface mounted weighbridge, you’ll also want to check to see whether there is anything below the weigh-bridge that could be causing functionality issues.
There needs to be enough space below the weighbridge and you should ensure the load cell assemblies aren’t affected by debris or obstructions. Mud, debris, and other materials can cause issues if left unchecked, so it’s important to check for issues on a daily basis.
Weekly Schedule
In addition to daily cleaning and maintenance, you should also plan on performing some tasks weekly as well. Here are some things you should do on a weekly basis.
Perform a Weight Check
As part of a weekly routine, you should perform a weighing check, also known as an end-middle-end test. To do this, you’ll weigh a loaded vehicle in different placements on the weighbridge. You’ll weigh the vehicle at one end, then in the middle, and then on the other end.
Afterwards, you’ll check the data to see if there are significant changes between the three weights you have recorded. If there are major discrepancies between your numbers, your bridge may need specialized attention.
Cleaning a Surface-Mounted Bridge
When maintaining surface mounted weighbridges, you’ll need to check the load cell assemblies for any buildup or debris. While doing it, you’ll want to check carefully and avoid causing any damage to the load cell cables. If any debris or dirt is found, you should then remove it while ensuring no damage occurs during the process.
Monthly Duties
In addition to daily and weekly routines, you should also plan on adding some tasks to your monthly schedule as well.
Check for Damage and Position Changes
One of the main things you’ll want to do on a monthly basis is to check for movement and damage. You’ll want to examine the platform carefully to determine whether there have been any major changes to its position since the previous inspection. You should also check the weighbridge pit for debris as you normally do.
Jetwash the Weighbridge
Another thing you should do monthly is to thoroughly wash the top and underside part of the weighbridge platform with a jet washer. Doing this will allow you to clean the weighbridge and get rid of the dirt that may have accumulated over time.
When cleaning under the platform, remember to avoid spraying the load cells or allowing water to entire into the junction box.
Rebalance the Bridge
You’ll also want to reset the weighbridge to zero no a monthly basis. You’ll also want to perform a weighing check and compare your three readings to ensure that there aren’t any discrepancies to be found.
Final Thoughts
To keep your weighbridge in great condition and to ensure it continues to make accurate readings, you need to have consistent maintenance and cleaning plan. Be sure you follow the steps above if you want to prevent future problems and keep your weighbridge functioning correctly.
Need help maintaining your weighbridge? Contact us today to learn how we can help.