Innovative Weighbridge Design for Devon County Council
Weightron Admin|2 February, 2015
An innovative Eurodeck weighbridge installation carried out by Westco Bilanciai Ltd has solved a challenging vehicle weighing application for Devon County Council at their green waste site adjacent to the Sutton Barton amenity site near Honiton.
The site, which is managed by Devon Waste Management, carries out composting activities for the surounding area and there is a requirement to track the weight of materials delivered and collected from site by a diverse range of vehicles. These include lorries with roll-on roll-off containers, skip lorries and agricultural tractor-trailer combinations.
However the planned location for the weighbridge not only features sloping terrain in two planes, but also has limited access and no permanent electrical power. Westco engineers overcame all these problems by installing a nine metre concrete infill weighbridge module with a special end frame. With this design, vehicles enter and leave the weighbridge from one end only and a robust steel end frame prevents vehicles driving off the end of the deck.
Although Westco have developed proprietary technology for installing weighbridges on sloping terrain, for this application special concrete foundations have accommodated the complex slope. The lack of electrical power has been overcome by the use of solar panels to power the weighbridge instrumentation and load cells via a large rechargeable battery. The Weightron CPR-M weighbridge load cells have lower power consumption than most competitive devices, helping to conserve the stored power.
The finish on the robust concrete weighbridge deck and approach ramp provides additional grip for vehicles, especially in wet and icy conditions. This steel-concrete composite design is ideal for sites with restricted access and minimises craneage requirements for the installation.
As Westco’s Sales Manager John Harbour concludes:
“This application highlights our special capabilities in providing bespoke weighbridge solutions. Many of our competitors do not have the flexibility and design skills to solve such installations.”
Footnote: Westco Bilanciai is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weightron Bilanciai Ltd, and a part of our Wellington branch down in Somerset.
