"Market for smart load cell systems has plenty of potential"

We supply load cell technology to our internal and external customers. I work together every day with genuine specialists in order to meet requirements to a tee. We use different technologies, depending on the demand.

Smart systems, such as weighing shelf systems, are a tremendous market of the future that has not yet really been tapped. The possible applications for our load cells are diverse. The sooner we bring out production-ready systems together with appropriate partners, the greater our market penetration will be. The challenge, given all of the issues that we are focusing on, will be to select those points and processes that allow us to quickly achieve the best results. We can then further reduce manufacturing costs and increase delivery speed, to the benefit of our customers.

For instance, the strain gauge technology that we mainly use for our best-selling retail products and for which, by the way, we also develop and manufacture our own strain gauges. For dynamic weighing, we work with EMF, i.e. electromagnetic force compensation. As a separate weight measurement method, we also support the vibrating string. My team and I are facing a wide variety of tasks - keywords: load cell mechanics, analogue-digital converters (ADCs), filter technologies and software programming of the ADCs. And finally, an in-house team is responsible for putting load cells to the acid test.

We have derived the current series product WS-MiniSlim from a trade fair prototype. The reaction speed was possible thanks to our interdisciplinary, agilely working "Load Cell Basic Technology" team. With this team, we are in a position to implement projects extremely quickly. In this way, we support our partners in serving the sudden demand for intelligent shelving systems in a timely manner. On a personal level, the project also gave us a boost of innovation, as the new weighing system does not have the calibration that would otherwise be required in the temperature chambers, thanks to the momentum-free force transmission. Corner calibration is not required either. This significantly reduces manufacturing costs. Because the WS-MiniSlim offers even more potential, we are already planning a facelift with an even slimmer ADC and more simplified assembly.

As I said, the market for smart systems has barely been tapped so far, so we are particularly focusing on this area. The possible applications for our load cell technologies range from baked goods shelves in supermarkets to industrial applications to containers in which craftspeople can purchase tools and materials 24/7. In this segment, a key competitive factor is the ability to also develop quickly customised solutions. We are in an excellent position to do this, not least because of our interdisciplinary development team.