Vol. XIII No. 2
March /April 2019
Serving Soil, Mulch, Compost & Wood Pellet Producers www.SoilandMulchProducerNews.com
NEWS
Improve Load Measurements Using Laser Scanning Technology
I
n the past, determining the volume of mulch, topsoil or compost in a trailer was often a matter of guesswork. “Mulch is sold by yardage, but until recently there was no real method to certify yardage,” said Derek Schussele, account manager at Walz Scale, of East Peoria, Ill. “A lot of times an operation would have somebody sitting at the scale house, who would look at the truck and say, ‘that looks like 40 yards.’” A somewhat more accurate volume can be calculated based on the weight of the material. But, as Schussele explained, “Volume calculated off of weight is different from actual volume. It might be close, but it is different, and that difference over time can be huge amounts of material.” That’s why many bark, mulch, soil and compost producers are installing volume scanning systems, such as those offered by Walz and Loadscan Ltd., of Dinsdale, Hamilton, New Zealand. Using relatively simple laser scanning technology, the systems scan passing trucks and trailers to accurately measure the volume of material they are carrying. “ I t ’s a p e r f e c t solution for mulch and soil producers who tell me that they’re sick of having arguments with their customers over volume,” said Carey West, owner of Loadscan. “A problem in this business is that bark and mulch products suck up moisture very easily when it rains, and the water will evaporate out when it’s hot and dry. It’s hard to get a true representation of the actual volume you have in the back of the truck when you’re weighing water content. Scanning the load allows them to guarantee the volume they are shipping.”
By Ken McEntee Photos courtesy of LoadScan.
The process is simple. Scanning heads are placed on poles at the entrance/exit of the production facility. Trucks that slowly pass or park beneath them are scanned. Data from that scan is fed into a computer, which stores the information and produces a ticket that contains the volume, along with a variety of other information that an operation may choose to include. “Typically, the first thing that happens is that an empty truck will be scanned to produce a reference scan,” Schussele said. The reference scan can be saved in the system for future use, particularly if the truck is a part of the producer’s fleet, or is one that makes regular stops at the producer’s site. The reference scan is compared to subsequent scans of the loaded truck to calculate the volume it is carrying. The system can be used to measure outbound shipments delivering materials to customers and
inbound vehicles bringing in feedstock. Both Walz and Loadscan reported that their systems are accurate to plus/minus 1 percent. Loadscan, West said, has been installing its Load Volume Scanner (LVS) system - or a predecessor system - since 1998. The system was developed by his late father, Wayne, who wanted to solve the problem of accurately measuring loads of material arriving at his civil construction sites in New Zealand. “We were being shortchanged on supply volumes and were overpaying people on the outbound side,” Carey West said. “It was constant discussion and arguments with drivers over load size. One of my jobs in the early years was to get up on the trucks and level the load out by shovel and take measurements of the load. My dad wanted to develop a system to measure the volume without having to touch the material at all.” The initial system, called Tally Clerk, was sold mainly in New Zealand. After Wayne West passed on in 2011, Carey West decided to change the name to Loadscan, and take the product global. “We already had a couple large operations Continued on page 3