A Guide to Weighing Paint
Weighing scales can be used to accurately weigh out paints and dyes in industrial settings to ensure that the blend of colour is just right.
For this blog, we’re going to explore the world of paint weighing, giving you helpful information on choosing a paint weighing scales, why they’re so important and more.
Click here to see our full range of industrial and commercial scales and balances.
The importance of weighing paint
Paint mixing is an intricate process that requires the utmost accuracy and precision in order to create the right colour, tone and finish. There are many different types of paint, all of which have a different traits that make them suitable for certain applications and materials. Because of this, different ingredients such as silica, calcium carbonate and resins must be added to the mixtures to alter their properties.
Paint weighing scales are designed to reduce the likelihood of human error in the paint mixing process. Weighing paints and dyes requires minute changes to the mixtures that can result in major changes to the colour and shade of your product. This can result in paints being the wrong colour or tone, or could cause paints to peel or crack, all of which are not good for such a highly visible product where the slightest inconsistency can clearly be seen.
This will ultimately lead to dissatisfied customers or cost both time and money due to potential re-mixing and product recalls. Like all manufacturing processes, consistency in your product is absolutely crucial to ensure that your customers remain satisfied, and your company reputation remains at a high level.
As well as ensuring consistency, paint weighing scales also greatly speed up the mixing process. Users are able to quickly and easily weigh out their required paint amounts using percentage weighing functions – a feature that enables users to weigh out one subject as a percentage of an overall total value. This helps to boost efficiency in the work place and increases the amount of products that can be completed every day.
What is needed from a paint weighing scale?
High accuracy
Accuracy is perhaps the most important thing for a paint weighing scale, as even a tiny miscalculation can affect paint colouring. Users must be able to count on their weighing scale to give accurate weighing results with every use, even in demanding industrial environments where weighing processes may be repetitive.
Exceptional precision
Precision is also an important factor in weighing paint as smaller incrementations allow for a great degree of control over the mixing process. Pigments are mixed together to form the overall basis of a colour, which is then added to white to create the final colour. Even for large mixes of paint of up to 25kg, a small amount of pigment such as 0.5 grams can greatly change the colouring of the final mix. Micro-ingredients can also be added to alter the properties of the paint and would require a precise scale or balance.
Durable build
Paints can contain toxic or corrosive chemicals that can cause damage to weighing equipment that isn’t properly protected. Many of our scales are fitted with grade-304 stainless steel weighing pans that offer extra protection from corrosive materials, meaning your scales will keep performing for longer.
Unique weighing features
Many scales now come with special features that can make weighing processes faster, easier and more efficient, such as percentage weighing that we referred to previously. As well as this, checkweighing functions can be useful for checking the weight of your paint to ensure that each pot contains the same amount of paint.
Data transmission
Many of our scales are fitted with RS-232 or USB interfaces to enable the fast transfer of data to PC’s or printers. This can be useful for keeping records of what has been mixed and offers paint weighing companies with more than one location to have a centralised set of data to ensure a consolidated workflow.
Do I need an IP Rated scale for weighing paint?
IP rated weighing scales can be useful when weighing messy subjects where cleaning down after use is necessary. An IP rating essentially means that the internal mechanisms of the scale or balance have some form of protection from liquid or solid ingress, meaning your weighing device will be protected from paint, pigments, dirt or dust.
Some IP rated scales can be regarded as ‘splashproof’, whilst other higher rated scales can be fully submerged in water for large periods of time or sprayed down using pressure hoses. To see which IP rating you need, please see our full guide to IP ratings on our blog page.
Our recommended paint weighing scales
Inscale stocks a wide range of weighing scales that can be used to weigh out and mix paints, pigments and dyes:
Adam GFK Floor Checkweighing Scale
Adam's GFK floor checkweighing scale is perfect for use in industrial environments such as larger workshops or warehouses. The GFK features an intuitive checkweighing feature to precisely calculate the weight of heavier items, making it suitable for weighing larger pots of paint.
Adam Eclipse Top Loading Balance
The Eclipse range from Adam Equipment is a high capacity and exceptionally precise that is perfect for weighing pots of paint. It features a large 400mm x 300mm grade 304 stainless steel top pan, as well as USB and RS-232 interfaces for the speedy transfer of data to PC’ and printers.
Adam Gladiator Waterproof Floor Scale
The Gladiator range in one of the most popular weighing scales from Adam Equipment, as it combines high accuracy weighing with exceptional IP67 protection and a grade 304 stainless steel design. It also comes in a wide range of capacities, readabilities and weighing pan sizes, meaning users will always be able to find what they’re looking for. The Gladiator also comes as a trade approved version.
For more information on our range of paint weighing scales, please contact a member of our team on 01908972660 or Get In Touch with us.
It should also be noted that when weighing flammable ingredients, we would recommend using explosion-proof paint weighing scales.
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