Special Applications of Industrial Weighing Technology in Lifting Equipment

In recent years, several international experts have highlighted that material handling engineering technology is one of the weakest yet most urgently in need of improvement areas in modern industry—yet it’s also one of the fields with the greatest potential and brightest prospects for future development. They’ve introduced the concept of material handling technology as the "third profit source." Material handling machinery typically encompasses six major product categories: lifting equipment, conveying systems, loading and unloading devices, warehousing machinery, industrial handling vehicles, and hydraulic machinery. In China, material handling machinery is conventionally referred to as lifting and transportation machinery. Notably, lifting equipment stands out as the dominant category within this sector due to its wide variety, powerful functionality, and critical role in material handling—and it was also among the earliest types of material handling machinery to adopt weighing technology.

1. The Historical Application of Weighing Technology in Lifting Machinery

Crane machinery is a type of handling equipment that uses intermittent operations to lift, lower, and move materials horizontally. To enable cranes to simultaneously weigh the lifted materials during operation, the idea—and desire—arose among engineers and operators to integrate weighing devices directly into crane systems.

The history of using weighing technology in lifting machinery spans over 200 years. At the Bavarian State Metrology Office in Munich, a wall-mounted spring scale used to measure suspended loads from around 1780 is preserved.

In 1760, a fixed-boom jib crane was equipped with a decimal-scale weighing device manufactured in 1858. By the first half of the 19th century, crane scales—known as "Swedish ship scales"—had already gained international fame. By 1932, crane scales fitted with slings had achieved measurement accuracy within an impressive margin of just 0.2% of any given load, earning them official type approval.

2. Current Status of Weighing Technology Applications in Lifting Machinery

With groundbreaking advancements in digital technologies, particularly in electronic weighing systems, the development of lifting machinery has been significantly boosted toward greater mechanization, automation, integration, and intelligence. As industrial production continues to expand in scale and efficiency steadily increases, there is a growing demand for large-scale, high-speed, and specialized lifting equipment that not only boasts automated, intelligent, and information-driven capabilities but also seamlessly integrates with modern operational workflows. Today, advanced weighing technologies enable various types of lifting machinery to directly engage in material handling tasks within diverse working environments—tasks such as loading, unloading, transporting, lifting, sorting, stacking, storing, and even delivering materials. In some cases, these machines can even perform direct measurements, identification, tracking, and management of materials in real time.

Currently, the weighing devices used on lifting machinery can generally be categorized into two types based on their functions: electronic hanging scales and specialized weighing systems. Among these, electronic hanging scales are widely adopted and come with extensive documentation, so we won't go into detail about them here. Specialized weighing systems primarily refer to load limiters, which are already commonly integrated into lifting equipment.