Truck scales are guardians of the freeways, protecting roadways from road buckling overloads. But what protects the truck scales? Road salt, other de-icing chemicals, sand, gravel and grit and snow plough blades all conspiring to eventually reduce these scales to crumbling iron oxide.

Hot-dip galvanizing is an obvious solution; already successfully protecting roadside guardrail and signposts for decades. Why aren’t all these weighing structures galvanized? The devil is in the details. Structural steel framing and grip plate (checker plate) have always been a challenge to the inherent thermal nature of HDG which results in differing temperature swings in different steel components resulting in warping and even cracking. This has always been an issue for complex structures but with the precision needs of these weighing systems the maximum deflection permitted is only 1/8th of one inch across these 20 by 11-foot heavy platform sections.

The traditional solution has been to galvanize the plates and frames separately and then bolt them together. This leads to extra costs and reduced strength as well as persistent loosening of fasteners leading to deformed and damaged plating or even truck accidents. The fabricator decided to try a one piece design with welded plating to avoid these issues. The extent of the deformation problem was made evident when an initial unmodified frame distorted twelve inches after galvanizing (almost 10,000% over specification) along with severe checker plate warpage . Enter the 21st century Galvanizer with profound inhouse chemical and metallurgical skillsets. Combining the specialized knowledge and experience of the engineer, the fabricator and the galvanizer resulted in over 200 design changes to the product and a precise step by step galvanizing process resulting in a deformation free test platform meeting all specifications.

Next enter the advanced computer managed process controls of the galvanizer assuring that this carefully planned process can be repeated over and over in any of its plants on any shift. Another win for modern hot-dip galvanizing where knowledge and technology breaks through challenges adding to new markets and, in this case, a new series of long-life truck scales ensuring long-life freeways!