Moisture Analyzers: Good Things Come in Small Packages
Moisture analyzers help researches determine the amount of moisture within a product. They accomplish this by measuring the weight of a product once is has completely dried over a certain period of time. This measurement is called, LOD. The LOD helps researchers solve a variety of issues from product durability to shelf life. These analyzers dry products using microwaves or infrared heaters mounted on top of the scale.
Without moisture analysis, many industries would not be able to regulate society's most valuable products. From the food industry to the pharmaceutical industry, moisture analyzers play a significant part in determining an item quality and efficiency of use.
How washdown scales help the research world
Washdown scales aren't exactly the most glamorous piece of equipment. In fact, they don't even have a very glamorous life. They get slopped on, wet, dirty, and trampled on a semi-regular basis. What most people don't consider though is that washdown scales are absolutely imperative to many industries, and the research world is just one of them. Think for a moment about medical research. What comes to mind is probably mice and rats, but those aren't the only animals that are used to find cures for modern diseases.
Finding the Right Affordable Scales for Laboratories and Businesses
No two scales are alike. They differ on capacity, accuracy, and construction. These qualities contribute to the overall functionality of a scale as to whether it measures correctly or not. It is important to consider this when trying to find affordable scales that are right for business or laboratory use.
Differences in Scales
There are many kinds of scales. Each one is designed with different capacities and accuracies for specific jobs. Some are designed for more delicate work in microgram ranges while others are constructed to meet heavy-duty industrial uses in kilograms
School Scales and Weighing Concepts in Elementary School
When it comes to buying a school scale, it's useful to know how they are used so you can choose the right one. One of the most basic concepts taught at early levels is a wide category that involves weight concepts. You might think it is nothing more than putting something on the scale and reading the number, but it is so much more. Let us explain.
Weighing a substance starts with holding it in the hand and identifying the properties. What is its volume? How heavy it is relative to something else? From here, talks lead to talking about balances and scales and what weight actually means.
A Digital Moisture Analyzer is Essential in the Modern Manufactured Food Industry
Many new, small businesses are cropping up that cater to the growing organic and homemade-style food market, causing many amateurs and newbies to get into the pre-packaged food industry. When it comes to making organic foods, this often presents new challenges because manufacturers cannot use traditional preservatives to increase shelf life. Food moisture content then becomes even more important.
Water is one of the most plentiful substances in the world and one of the most powerful. It can cause problems in all instances where precise conditions are necessary. The degradation it can cause, even during small-scale exposure is dramatic.
Determine if your Water Resistant Scale works as Expected with Important Quality Control
In order to ensure that a lab always works the way it’s expected to, it’s always important to make sure that items such as the water resistant scale you use conform to quality control standards. This is an issue that many people take for granted, but which can turn out to be the bane of any lab if not taken care of well. According to the CDC, quality control “encompasses a range of activities that enable laboratories to achieve and maintain high levels of accuracy and proficiency despite changes in test methods and the volume of specimens tested.” It is important that all labs try to follow such standards to ensure that they end up providing the quality that they are expected to in terms of results after tests are done.
Romancing the Stone – Precision Balances and Diamonds
It is one of the most sought-after natural resources in the world. It provides the weapons for guerrilla revolutions. It is used to signify a lifelong commitment. For centuries, it has held great value by mankind while remaining embroiled in controversy. This is the diamond of course. For hundreds of years there has been a competitive market for trading in diamonds, but where did all start?
Trading in diamonds dates back over 1,000 years, to India. At the time, India controlled the entire supply of the world’s diamonds. The ‘wholesalers’ carried the diamonds across Arabia to be traded with Jewish merchants. These merchants would then resell the diamonds in Europe. The diamonds became so common that they were used as collateral for loans and large payment amounts.
The Kilogram Standard for Lab Scales
Everyone knows what a lab scale does, and we all have a general idea of what the measurements represent. The words pound, ounce, gram, and kilogram are used in labs, factories, airports, and even at your gym, but do we really know what they mean? For instance, we can conceptualize the kilogram, we know that it is 1000 time heavier than a gram, but how did we decide how much the kilogram weighed in the first place?
For thousands of years, humans worked to perfect the balance but no matter how precise the tool became the need for a standard was clear. We needed a measurable constant that we could place on one side of a balance for all other things to be measured against. The idea was sound, but the early implementations were rocky.
From Stone to Milligram, Evolution of a Precision Balance
The balance in literal form is an equal arm beam scale. If you close your eyes, you can probably imagine the single brass beam with a shallow cup hanging from each end. The concept is so simple that it did not really require an ‘inventor,’ it more likely represents a ‘discovery,’ like fire, or the wheel.
Dating back to approximately 5000 BCE, the simple equal-arm balance served as the starting point for science, discovery, and trade. For 7000 years, this scale design remains one of the most accurate of instruments even though it works on the simplest principle of mechanics.
Interning with Lab Scales
John and Maria were both interning for the summer. It was a terrific position that would look great on their resumes. The people they worked for had a sense of humor, so you had to think about some of the requests they made. The humor made the internship fun.
One day they were told to bring a scale to another room. No other directions were given. John took off running, but Maria remembered other challenges they had been given. So, she stayed and asked a key question. Maria asked what the scale would be used for. She was told they needed a scale that would measure in gram, ounces, and pounds. That didn't narrow things down since the BA303, BTA200, and the AG500 are all capable of weighing in those 3 units of measure as well as others units.
Jane the Intern and Her Washdown Scale
A short story about Jane and her Washdown Scale:
Growing up on the Florida Gulf Coast, Jane fell in love with the water. More specifically, she fell in love with what lived in the water. Her house sat just a couple hundred feet away from the inland waterway where she would spend her afternoons after school tapping on the dock to communicate with the more curious of the wild dolphins that called this area home.
Do Not Attempt Molecular Gastronomy without a Precision Scale
“I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus, we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.” -Nicholas Kurti
In 1992, a cooking teacher named Elizabeth Cawdry Thomas saw fit to disrupt a regular discussion among scientists by introducing a cook’s perspective. These scientists had been meeting every year in Erice, Italy, to discuss the physics and chemistry of cooking. Elizabeth, who was married into the culture of scientists, recruited many of these very scientists, and a group of experienced cooks, to expand upon these discussions by forming the “Workshop on Molecular and Physical Gastronomy.”