The engineering behind a mechanical platform scale

When I was a kid, my mom always bring me to the grain selling station. My family has a farm and we grow many types of crops. After harvested, we sell those grain to a buyer. They use these mechanical platform scales to weigh the bags of grains, and I always wonder how these work. Took a mechanical major in university and now I can share my understanding of how it works to you.

There are some equations involved that I don't want to add if possible.

If you found an error in my videos or you know a better way of explaining, please feel to leave a comment, and we can discuss about it..

#mechanical
#weighingscales
#animatedexplainer
#3danimation
#howitworks
#lever
#physics

[Eckster]

These videos always make me appreciate just how much thought and ingenuity went into even the simplest tools we use all the time. It's really easy to take for granted just how good we have it today.

[akaHarvesteR]

The brilliance of the platform design is that the dual lever arrangement of the platform means the load doesn't have to be placed exactly centered. The offset load just distributes the weight on both levers, such that the difference cancels out on the measuring arm.

And as a bonus, the design ensures the platform itself always stays level even when loaded unevenly.

It's really a VERY clever piece of engineering.

[nayminhtet]

I'm from Myanmar too. It's great to see someone from here doing something of this kind, like explaining how things work and stuff bcz education is suppressed and rarely anyone has any interest in this kind of things in here.

[ashishshevkar]

Animation is too good it's perfectly helping your verbal explanation.

[manamsetty]

I had such a scale in my uncle's shop was always fascinated by it
No one ever told me how it worked
Thank you

[AnandKumarmeb]

Details in animation are subtle and appreciable.

[davidmattice]

Thanks being a small farmer when I was younger used one of these scales, and always wondered how it works,

[waltonchan]

Great breakdown and derivations of formulae!

[billkraemer]

Fairbanks is credited with developing the “modern” platform scale with robust 1124 pivots and a useful 1000 pound capacity. But there were others in use that do predate the Fairbanks design. I have one, that while it functions, is used for yard art and a connection to my dad, his brother and my grandfather who were all in the weights and measures business. Yes, I grew up a shop rat and could disassemble these scales, perform repairs, and rebuild the such that they passed county inspection for use in trade - I was 13 at the time.

[kevinbyrne]

Very nice animations. (No doubt the result of much careful and tedious work.)
Thank you for your labors.

[tomaspecl]

Basically its two levers composed together in series.

[kulturfreund]

Highly interesting. Thanks for the great presentation. 🙂👍

[bpark]

The digital scales are not as good as balances or platform scales. Digital scales use strain gauges to measure the force. These gauges change resistance with stress. This amount of resistance change is a small fraction of the total resistance. Other affects (such as temperature) also affect this resistance leading to large errors. The biggest problem is zero drift. To get any type of accuracy, the scale must be "zeroed" IMMEDIATELY before use. Mechanical scales can hold there zero setting accurately for years.
Digital scales measure force, not mass. They must be corrected for the locality where they are used due to changes in earth's gravitational field. Balance scales compare forces of 2 masses in same gravitational locality, & are accurate anywhere without calibration. Mechanical scales also do not require electrical power of batteries to work. They are powered by the weights placed on them.

[linggiman]

Subscribed.. Love this channel..learning fascinating engineering stuff 😊

[leopardtiger]

Oh oh never expected this level complexity

[CountJeffula]

So much better than the garbage we see today at the supermarket produce sections.

[redpug]

i'm curious as to why they didn't use springs or something to automatically adjust the weight on the end.
That seems like it would make it a whole lot easier. You just put the item on, and an arm turns a certain amount based on the equilibrium of the force of the object and the string

[xyt]

bro what software dod u use in animation? tnx full support

[pantherplatform]

Want to know who what used balance scales in less developed regions (like Chicago)?

[gloriosatierra]

Very useful for empire building. 🕯📜✍️🏼