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Truck Scale Centerfold Photo Contest

ONlOCaTiON

The 2nd 500-Year Flood in 15 Years

It’s Superscale!

TECHTalK

The Power of Zap How to Find, Troubleshoot and Remedy Power Problems

Tale of Two Techs Scaleman meets PLC Guy

STarSTruCK

The Day Hollywood Called

Showmanship Rice Lake shows up in famous places

Rice Lake Rules at zMAX Dragway

How Much Does a Jockey Weigh? DRAMA. ENTERTAINMENT. RACING. SPORTS.Our First Centerfold Truck Scale Photo Contest

TV DEBUTRice Lake Equipment Stars on The Office® Premiere

RICE LAKE RULESat the zMAX Drag Strip

THE POWER OF ZAPShocking Report on Static Electricity

A mAGAZine And ReFeRenCe TOOL FOR THe WeiGHinG indUSTRY / WinTeR 2008 • iSSUe 3 • vOL. 5

RICE LAKE mAgAzInE Winter 2008 • issue 3 • Vol. 5

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GReeTinGS TO ALL.

AS THeY SAY in THe FiLm bUSineSS, “iT’S A WRAP!” The year 2008 was very exciting for Rice Lake and especially for the Marketing Team. In this issue of Rice Lake Magazine you’ll read all about our star turn in Hollywood, as well as equipment application stories at race tracks and disaster sites. It’s a page-turner.

Turning the page to 2009, we have even more excitement in store. We will be taking Rice Lake branding to a new level with fresh marketing that will tell our story. Putting our customer first is making Rice Lake Weighing Systems the first choice of weight-related equipment buyers the world over. We’re nearly a decade into the new century and it could be the best one ever.

We’re looking forward to the opportunities ahead.

Pat Ranfranz,marketing director

RICE LAKE

Going green? if so, then receive the Rice Lake Magazine online. You’ll receive the same great stories and all the informative product details you enjoy with the printed version, but with electronic access to the maga-zine you can easily share it with employees and customers.

To Subscribe:

Go to www.ricelake.com/ricelakemagazine.

Complete the online form.

it’s that easy. if you have any questions, please feel free to email us at rlmagazine@ricelake.com.

ONLINE MAGAZINE

T H i S i S S U e

Bob has been a scale technician for 20 years, working for a medium-sized company all the while. He has worked a lot with the programmable indicators from Rice Lake Weighing Systems, so he is very familiar with setting up the 720i™, 820i® and 920i® indicators to do a batch process.

Greg works for a dog food processing manufacturer and has been there 12 years. He maintains the PLC systems that run all the processing lines to mix and bag the products.

These men have never met before, and they really don’t understand each other’s skills. They have been tasked with convert-ing all the scales in the dog food plant to a system that allows the PLCs to directly communicate with the scales at the vari-ous locations of the process.

There are four older hopper scales that are used to visually monitor the inven-tory of the ingredients required to process the food products. Two more scales are used on the lines to verify the final mixed weight so the product can be properly la-beled for retail sale.

Now comes the bow-wow part.

They need to determine which PLC net-work to use and how to set it up. They have an Ethernet® network but their older PLC won’t support EtherNet/IP. They could run a separate network just for the factory and connect the two PLCs with the scales. The 920i as one unit can handle six scales, so the cost of a new network can be offset by the use of the single 920i to replace the existing six scales. DeviceNet® is the chosen network.

Bob decides he can install one DeviceNet option card in the 920i that can read all six scales.

Greg decides all he needs to do is add one DeviceNet scanner card to each of his PLCs and each PLC can then access each scale.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

It is.

Each of the three units needs a NODE ad-dress. PLC 1 will be NODE 0 and PLC 2 will be NODE 2. This leaves the 920i as NODE 3. There are switches on the DeviceNet Option card just for that purpose. All oth-er parameter details will be handled auto-matically by the 920i. Bob wants to learn more from Greg, so he sticks around.

Greg decides to write a new subroutine just for the DeviceNet operation in his PLC software.

So he does.

He realizes, after experimenting, that on every scan of the 920i, he can select the scale, read the gross or net weight, moni-tor the in-motion bit, monitor any errors, and then use that data to adjust his dog food process lines.

The DeviceNet scanner card reads and writes four words in and out, so a scan will send four words that will include the command, (word 1), and the scale number

(word 2). Words 3 and 4 would be used for any data needed on a data transfer if the command needs them.

The Input words echo the command (word 1) and send status of the command includ-ing the In-motion bit (word 2) and the weight data (words 3 and 4, with word 3 as the least significant value).

So the system was set up.

Now the four hopper scales can be scanned by the PLCs, and the two check weigher scales can also be monitored. The process-ing lines also can be adjusted for speed by the PLCs.

The gist of this story is the ever-popular idea of a marriage between two technolo-gies, which triggers the merging of knowl-edge and joining of forces by two technical strangers assigned to the same task.

Told you it would be easy.

editor’s note: As the scale industry grows alongside the process industry, the fine line between the sup-port of each system disappears.

Tale of Two TechsScaleman meets PLC Guyby Cal briggs, senior design test engineer

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YOU’ve Seen THOSe mOvieS where the unknown (but worthy) actor gets that once-in-a-lifetime call from Hollywood. The part suits the actor to a T. But can he get to Hollywood in two weeks? That’s what played out at Rice Lake Weighing Systems one Thursday after-noon before the Fourth of July weekend.

When Pat Ranfranz, director of marketing, took the call, he thought it was one of his longtime vendors. “You’re the prop master from The Office®?

“From NBC? You’re joking, right?”

This was no practical joke. The real prop master for NBC’s hit TV series The Office was calling to inquire about using one of our indicators and scales for their fall premiere episode. Pat recognized a golden opportunity and moved quickly to discuss the idea with Mark Johnson Jr., director of customer service, and Steve Parkman, chief operating officer.

A television or movie prop master creates a realistic setting for the story line. In this case, the Dunder Mifflin team would be filmed in a warehouse where they are about to be weighed en masse. The prop master couldn’t call just any prop company and ask for any platform scale. After searching the yellow pages and Internet, he hit our site www.ricelake.com and found his star scale system: our RoughDeck® and 920i®.

Roughdeck and 920i are registered trademarks of Rice Lake Weighing Systems. The Office is a registered trademark of nbC. neither nbC nor The Office sponsors or endorses Rice Lake products.

Scene 1 – The Crew Rallies

Soon they were discussing many more ways Rice Lake’s expertise and service could assist. The prop master requested pictures of a warehouse scale application so they could recreate it for their set. Pat set the project in motion. The emails were flying. Dozens of people were called into the act. Julia Buergi, product manager; Tina Slayton, marketing specialist; Steve Parkman; Mark Jr., and a host of others rolled up their sleeves. It was showtime at Rice Lake.

Typical product placements in movies and on the small screen vary from paid placements like the famous Reese’s Pieces in the E.T.™ movie to unpaid placements like the Rice Lake RoughDeck® floor scale and 920i® programmable indicator on The Office®.

Scene 2 – The Call

With any star, the wait is unbearable. Will they pick me? Will I get the part? For Rice Lake, Hollywood liked what they saw and called back before the end of the day. But with one caveat; we had to provide the scale to their specifications and within their time line. As the team worked through the expected delivery schedule and their unique specifications, it was time for Rice Lake to get their 15 minutes of fame as the warehouse scale system was designed to become the star of the warehouse set.

Scene 3 – The Custom Build

The writers of the script called for a scale to accommodate 12 people, the primary cast of The Office, with the flexibility to control the total amount displayed on the indicator. From the start, the Hollywood client wanted a real-life scenario. Julia assured them that the RoughDeck plat-form with the yellow bumper guards and matching indicator stand would suit their needs because it’s the same product sold to our customers. Working on a very tight deadline of two weeks, the order was en-tered and the custom build began, a com-mon scenario at Rice Lake. That’s why 90 percent of our products are the result of a custom build for a client. The prop team requested the system to be freestanding so it could be moved into various locations on the set depending on the needs of the direc-tor, other props and the script. Brian Lotton, designer/engineer, started working on the custom drawings and special production work orders for the 48 in x 80 in platform, 5,000 lb capacity super-star RoughDeck with built-in shelf and bumper guards.

The real magic behind the curtain involved all the customizing on the 920i indica-tor/HMI controller. At this juncture, Gary Hackel, programmer, focused on the 920i

requirements, selected for its star power and superior programmability needed to ac-commodate the story line.

Using iRite IDE® programming software, Gary configured the 920i to be easily ad-justed within the user-defined mode. “The operator is able to configure the weight reading on the scale while the up and down keys allow the operator to switch between the modes of operation,” Gary explained.

Scene 4 – The Rehearsal

As an element of custom software develop-ment, we often ask customers to preview the indicator software. This test ensures the end-user that the interface meets their ex-pectations while allowing for adaptability in the process. It’s a necessary step since cus-tomers’ needs often evolve as equipment is implemented to the desired application.

After viewing the initial demo and capabili-ties of the 920i, the prop team, with input from other stakeholders, requested some modifications. They wanted additional text to be added to the operation screen to provide flexibility and to accommodate a number of target weight situations. The modifications were executed the same day, and the indicator programming demo was

“I admired the prop guys. You only see the actors out front, but the crew behind the scenes really pays attention to detail to create the show’s realism.”Roger kimber, western regional director

The original crew from the Rice Lake office that worked to meet the deadline. From left: mark Jilec, michelle buckmaster, Randy Ritchey, Tina Slayton, melissa Hjelle, Levi Zueger, Pat Ranfranz and Stacy White.

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A CHAnGe FROm 59 TO 93 degrees in two and a half hours is drastic. A change from 0 to 100 mph in 0.8 seconds is a face-contorting, ear-flattening, physics-chal-lenging rocket ride to make even an F-16 fighter jet envious. To quote Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives… but the one most responsive to change.” If this is true, the grand opening of zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C., featuring 7,000+ horsepower top fuel dragsters (the fastest-accelerating machines on the plan-et) may have been a glimpse into the future of earth’s gene pool.

When Hannah Martell, graphic designer, and I left Wisconsin the morning of Sep-tember 8, it was 59 degrees. When we landed in Charlotte two and a half hours

later, I could have sworn we landed on the equator: 93 degrees with heavy humidity. I questioned whether my Wisconsin body, typically fueled by cheese and bratwurst, could survive in this environment. I felt like a deep-sea creature, yanked from the cool depths to this sweltering surface.

We were in town to cover the collection of top fuel, funny cars, pro stock motorcy-cles and pro stock cars that had descended on Concord, N.C., September 10-14 for the zMax Dragway inaugural National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nation-als. Deemed the “Bellagio of Dragstrips,” zMax is an $80M, state-of-the-art facility featuring the only all-concrete, four-lane drag strip in the country. Typically, a drag strip will have concrete for the first 660

feet and then transition to asphalt. When traveling at incredibly high speeds, any transition can become a very bad thing. When the racer’s wheels hit asphalt af-ter running on concrete, their traction can be compromised. The perfectly level 1,320 feet of concrete at zMax eliminates this transition and should be a breeding ground for broken records.

Bruton Smith, owner of Speedway Motor-sports, Inc., is notorious for making big splashes. The billionaire owns the place down the street from zMax, Lowe’s Mo-tor Speedway (in addition to seven other NASCAR tracks). He settles for nothing but the best, no exceptions. When build-ing zMax, every detail was covered. A typi-cal dragway has two lanes; zMax has four.

Behind the starting line stands a 34,000 square foot tower that includes 16 luxury suites. Clearly, the finest quality was a priority, and when it came to selecting a scale, Rice Lake was there.

The design of a drag car involves incredible technology and engineering. Each team’s crew has a mission: to reduce weight as much as possible without dipping below the minimum requirement and to main-tain safety. We were able to observe John Force’s crew (Force is a 14-time funny car champion and one of the most dominant drag racers in the sport with 126 career vic-tories) assemble his incredible ride for the weekend. Carbon fiber and Kevlar abound in the car’s construction. Money, clearly, is no object in building these machines; but

what does count is every ounce, and weight monitoring is essential.

In the sport’s early days, sneaky drivers would sometimes work around the rules—adding weight to themselves or within hid-den compartments during the weighing stages, then shedding this weight during the race to gain an unfair advantage. These days, weighments are taken directly after the race. At zMax, two special Rice Lake RoughDeck® scales are installed—one on each side of the drag strip. Actually, each scale is divided into two 8 ft x 14 ft Rough-Decks, joined to act as one scale (10,000 lb x 5 lb). This allows the necessary length to accommodate the top fuel drag cars while still providing 5 lb accuracy.

Once a race is finished, each car pulls onto one of the Rice Lake scales to ensure they are not below the minimum requirements. Even a 5 lb violation results in disqualifi-cation, no questions asked. The results are displayed on a 720iTM indicator connected to a tape printer. The 720i’s LCD screen makes it a perfect selection because it re-mains readable, even in direct sunlight.

Steve Daniels, president of Superior Scale, Inc., installed and calibrated the scale. “They wanted the best, so Rice Lake was an easy sell,” Steve said. “Their quality is head and shoulders above the competition.”

Steve has the unique talent of being able to do his own professional concrete work during scale installations. He does

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by Caleb Olson, Rice Lake technical writer

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not, however, drive the concrete mixer. “They backed up a fully loaded, 20,000 lb concrete truck onto the scale,” Steve re-members. With a 10,000 lb capacity, surely the load cells would be ruined, if not more damage done. “The scale feet were the only part of the scale damaged. That’s amaz-ing!” Steve said, showing me a warped foot. “This is one tough scale.”

With the feet replaced and the scale cali-brated, SSI quickly had the scale ready to go. Our first customer, Robert Burgin, driv-

ing a 2007 Chevy® Cobalt® Super Stock rated at 648 horsepower, pulled onto the scale for a test reading. The weight reg-istered within seconds and Burgin, who knows the weight of his car like most peo-ple know their own phone number, verified its accuracy. “That’s the first time I’ve seen an accurate weighment right off the bat!” Burgin said. He exited the race car so Han-nah could take a few photos. Noticing my admiration, Burgin turned to me and said, “You can get in if you’d like.”

Without hesitation, I approached the vehi-cle at near top fuel acceleration and opened the driver’s side door. Immediately, confu-sion set in. The cockpit looked more like a space shuttle than my 1997 Mercury® Sable® back home. I was able to recognize the steering wheel, but that was the extent of similarity. Levers, buttons and gauges seemed to cover every square inch. To com-pound my bewilderment, I wasn’t certain exactly how to enter the vehicle. Protective bars inhibited a customary turn-and-sit ap-proach, and I didn’t want to roll down the window and enter Dukes of Hazzard style. To be honest, I did want to, but didn’t think the maneuver would go over very well.

In an impressive display of body contortion worthy of a Pilates® instructor, I managed to park myself in the driver’s seat. The but-tons and levers seemed to cry out, “Push me! Pull me! What’s the worst that could happen?” Indeed. However, better judg-ment reigned supreme, and I simply mar-veled at the complexity of this machine, proud of my remarkable self-restraint. I could only imagine what it is like to drive such a vehicle. “When I hit the gas, I can only see lights,” Burgin said, describing the near 45-degree ascent of the car’s front end at launch. “It could flip over without those wheels in the back.” He pointed to a pair of small wheels attached to rods extending from the bottom of the Cobalt’s bumper. “When it touches back down, I just try to keep it as straight as possible.”

The following day was the track’s grand opening. The scale calibration and Robert Burgin’s initial weighing were performed as day-before preparation. Ron Hawkins,

an NHRA official, was now manning the RoughDeck and 720i, taking weighments as each eardrum-threatening race conclud-ed. “This is real readable,” Ron said of the 720i. “Sometimes we have to cut a hole in a cardboard box and put it over the screen to read the numbers,” he said of other in-dicators. “On this one, when a car leaves, it drops right back down to zero and stays there. Some drift around, so that’s really good!” With the drag strip and RoughDecks now in constant use, the custom scales per-form flawlessly, car after car.

When Bruton Smith decided to build the finest drag strip in the country, I’m sure

he paid more attention to the luxury boxes than the scale; regardless, he got the fin-est of both. After the races finished, Danny Garcia, NHRA’s national technical director, complimented Superior Scales’ installation and Rice Lake’s equipment, stating that it’s the best system on the national tour.

When we left, the temperature back home had risen to 68 degrees, while local tem-perature lowered to 73. Could it be pos-sible the environment acclimated itself to me? Years of watching Star Wars movies have taught me there could be only one explanation: clearly, the Force must be strong with this one.

If, as Darwin stated, the species most re-sponsive to change will lead the path to the future, surely those individuals who can dictate such change are worthy as well! Armed with a warped and irrational sense of power, and hope for potential inclusion in the future’s gene pool, I said goodbye to North Carolina and we boarded a plane for Grantville, PA. n

Caleb Olson is a technical writer at Rice Lake Weighing Systems. He can be reached at calebolson@ricelake.com.

“It’s the best weighing system on the

national tour.”nHRA’s national

Technical director, danny Gracia

brandon mcClain (left) and Steve daniels of Superior Scale, inc., do the heavy lifting.

Robert burgin pulls his 648 HP Chevy Cobalt onto the custom Roughdeck.

7,000-8,000 Peak output, in horsepower, of a competitive top fuel engine. 2,225 Minimum weight, in pounds, of a top fuel dragster. $1,000 Approximate cost per second incurred during a top fuel run. 333.25 Top speed, in mph, of the record-setting top fuel dragster over a quarter-mile. 77 Gallons of nitromethane fuel consumed per minute at wide-open throttle. 28 Quarts of oil used during warm-up and the quarter-mile run. $30.48 Approximate cost of a gallon of nitromethane. 4.75 G-force on the driver at launch. When the parachute ejects at the end of a run, the driver feels a force up to 6 Gs. Astronauts experience 3 Gs of force during space shuttle takeoff. 4.441 Record number of seconds it takes to reach 333.25 mph. 1 Distance, in miles, until the rear tires are worn out. 0.8 Record number of seconds it takes to accelerate from 0-100 mph.

Drag racing Fast Facts

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THe CedAR RiveR HAS been THReATeninG to flood the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as long as anyone can remember. Some years the river rose to record levels but earthen levees and flood walls kept the Cedar mostly within the banks of its tight S curve through the city.

At 9:20 a.m. on Wednesday, June 11, the National Weath-er Service reported that the Cedar River reached a re-cord 20.01 feet in Cedar Rapids. The old record of 20 feet was reached in 1929, and thought to have also been reached in 1851. The weather service jumped its forecast for the Cedar Rapids crest expected on Friday from 22.1 feet to 24.5 feet, two feet below the projected “500-year flood” crest.

Cedar Rapids city officials expanded the mandatory evacuation area to match the 500-year flood map. Police officers stood in knee-deep water as they unsnarled backed-up traf-fic attempting to cross the First and Second Street bridges before they were closed or inundated. Railroad cars filled with rock ballast were parked atop a bridge just south of downtown to try to prevent the river from carrying the span away.

Thursday morning, the bridge lay toppled on its side, white water rushing over the girders. People could be seen dragging suitcases up closed highway exit ramps to escape the water.

The city they said would never flood

One resident reported brown flood water lapping at the edge of her backyard at 11 a.m. and by 3:30 p.m. the basement was in-undated and the pressure of the water had cracked the foundation.

By Thursday afternoon, the Cedar River was 29 feet deep, or 17 feet above flood stage. Bri-an Pierce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport, said, “We’re in uncharted territory — this is an event be-yond what anybody could even imagine.”

At the Cargill corn processing plant spread out along the south side of the river, the floodwaters were rushing through the silos, bins and buildings, sweeping heavy equipment along with the surge.

The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, iowa ©2008

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Finally, on Friday the 13th, the Cedar crested at Cedar Rapids at 31.12 feet, a stunning 11.12 feet of petroleum- and garbage-polluted water above the previous flood of record set in 1929 and 19.12 feet above flood stage. Most of downtown Cedar Rapids was underwater, including city hall and the county courthouse and jail, all built on an island in the middle of the river.

At the Cargill corn processing plant spread out along the south side of the river, the flood-waters were rushing through the silos, bins and buildings, sweeping heavy equipment along with the surge. By Sunday, the Cedar had receded five feet but it would be three more days before the river dropped enough so crews could begin pumping water, and another week before the river fell below flood stage.

With the Cargill corn milling facility closed, the company was forced to declare “force majeure” on corn syrup contracts. This means the company would not be able to meet all of its customers’ contract volumes, and supply of corn syrup would be limited until the situation was resolved. Resolving the situation started with mucking out the mess.

Cargill had seven or eight platform scales and a 72 ft x 10 ft rail scale about six feet underwater. They called Keith Elson, proprietor of Aaron Scale Systems, a Rice Lake customer since the days of Thomas & Johnson Scale Service. Keith recalls, “When the water receded, the state commissioner wouldn’t allow Cargill to repair the track scale. They had to replace it. And they needed it replaced quickly. They had tons of damaged corn fructose on the property that had to come out by rail cars, and the product had to be weighed for insurance purposes. They were working day and night.”

As soon as the water receded, Brice LaGrange, Keith’s grand-daughter’s husband, and his crew, installed two temporary SURVIVOR® pitless truck scales in 24 hours. The rail scale would take longer. Brice’s crew had plenty to do. “First we had to tear out parts of the old foundation. We used M4 concrete, which dries in twenty-four hours, for the new founda-tion components. It’s the concrete Iowa uses for bridges.”

Keith remembers the stress, “We had this high-power concrete in the mixer truck, and we had forty-five minutes before it started to set. Then the mixer truck ran into a huge traffic jam because there was only one bridge open. We had to go twenty miles out of the way to get to the Cargill site. But we made it.” n

keith elson’s long association with Rice Lake began back in the Thomas & John-son days when we were making large load cell stands and linkages.

keith recalls, “Joe Grell was the first Rice Lake person who called on us. We started in a garage, just like Thomas & Johnson. my desk was a couple of planks over two file cabinets. We were a very small company but he treated us like a big company. We had a client list of lots of small co-ops, and we wanted to work with larger companies like Adm and Cargill, that ran 24 hours a day. i wanted a manufacturer that could satisfy all my needs. The more i associated with Rice Lake, the more i realized that this was the manufacturer for us. We’ve never had to

worry about shipment. Rice Lake always did what they said they would do.

“When Rice Lake introduced the 920i®, i knew this would solve all our problems. The forerunners didn’t have the flexibil-ity of a 920i. Rice Lake held a 920i school in Chicago where anyone who attended could get a 50% discount on the 920i. We bought 27.

i’ll never forget the time we needed someone to help us demonstrate that 920i to some clients in memphis, Tennessee. We called Rice Lake. it was a monday, Joe’s first day back from vaca-tion. He had a couple minutes’ notice and he was on his way to Tennessee. it turned out great.

"karen Hansen is great too. She sends me these larger drawings so i don’t need a magnifying glass to read them. i call her ‘Rocky.’”

Jeff merrell, feed house supervi-sor, (above, left) and keith elson, founder of Aaron Scales Systems.

karen Hansen, truck scale specialist, AkA “Rocky” and “Truck Scale Goddess”.

At a corn sweeteners wet grind plant, the bulk weigh scale combines 35-foot and 60-foot scales on either side of a 20-foot pit to accommodate smaller trucks as well as belly-dumpers.

What does the term “500-year flood” mean? Robert Holmes, USGS

National Flood Specialist explains, “We hydrologists realize the term

has instant public recognition and we use it to point to the extraordi-

nary nature of such floods. However, the occurrence of a five-hundred-

year flood doesn’t depend on what happened last year or fifteen years ago or one-hundred years ago. It’s based on the annual likelihood of the degree of flooding—in other

words, the odds.”

A 500-year flooding event has a 0.2 percent chance—1 in 500—of hap-

pening in any given year in a particular location. A 100-year flood has a 1 percent chance—

1 in 100—of occurring in any year in that location.

6/16/1947 » 18.23 ft

5/27/2004 » 18.30 ft

7/25/1999 » 18.31 ft

4/10/1965 » 18.51 ft

4/04/1933 » 18.60 ft

4/04/1993 » 19.27 ft

3/31/1961 » 19.66 ft

6/01/1851 » 20.00 ft

3/18/1929 » 20.00 ft

Flood Stage » 22.00 ft

6/13/2008 » 31.12 ft

O n L O C AT i O n

On June 15 at the Cargill soybean crushing plant upriver, flood-soaked soybeans blew a

20- foot hole in a concrete silo. The eruption of beans knocked over two railcars

on a track nearby.

The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, iowa ©2008

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We’re Fishing for PhotosTake a great (big) photo

of a SURVIVOR® Truck Scale with a beautiful truck on board and enter it in Rice Lake Magazine’s Centerfold Contest.

If we choose your photo for our centerfold truck scale poster,

you’ll win a trip to Rice Lake for a three-day weekend

of the best of Wisconsin fishing including a fishing guide to show you the sweet spots.

Win a Wisconsin Fishing Trip for a Centerfold Truck Scale Photo

Your entry must be a color photograph, at least 48 in x 32 in at 72 dpi, of a SURVIVOR truck scale with a fully loaded truck aboard, the bigger and heavier and shinier, the better. The SURVIVOR logo must be clearly visible. The photograph will become the property of Rice Lake Weighing Systems and may not have appeared in any other media, print or electronic.

Winner must be 21 years of age or older or be accompanied by an adult. This offer is good for the 2009 fishing season and is subject to scheduling. Prize weekend must be claimed by 10/31/09. This prize is not transferable and has no cash value. Void where prohibited.

Contest ends June 15, 2009.Send your photo on a CD or email your photo to:

Rice Lake Weighing SystemsAttention: Katy Madden, MarComm Department

230 W. Coleman Street, Rice Lake, WI 54868email: kmadden@ricelake.com

Paste your face here to get the full

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The Power of ZapThe first installment of a series:

How to Find, Troubleshoot and Remedy

Power Problemsby Chuck Crowley and Jim daggon

Jim daggon, senior product manager, and Chuck Crowley, senior technical support,

wear static control wrist straps and use a (left) dissipative work surface to protect sensitive components and circuits

from eSd. These items are available in our Rice Lake master Catalog and at

www.ricelake.com under “Hardware and Accessories.”

ZAP! UnSeen, UnFeLT And UnHeARd, electrostatic discharge (ESD), commonly known as static electricity, is damaging millions of dollars’ worth of electronic components every year. What’s more shocking is that you and your technicians are probably accomplices.

Electrostatic discharge is an electrical charge transferred between bodies at different elec-trostatic potential. “Static” electricity is the buildup of a charge on one object without a circuit for the current to flow through. When the charge builds up to the point where the voltage can “jump” the distance to a lesser charged object, it discharges with a spark. Once that spark occurs, the circuit is completed and current flows along the path of the spark. Lightning is the largest static electricity charge most of us will ever see. But we’ll discuss lightning more later.

That ZAP! you get when you shuffle across the rug in the winter and touch the TV can be annoying, but the voltages that build up can be deadly to today’s electronics. Quite often that damage is unseen. A zapped electronic device may work when it leaves your hands, but more than likely, its length of service has been reduced significantly.

You cannot feel ESD below 3,000 volts, hear it below 5,000 volts, or see the spark below 10,000 volts. Many electronic devices can be damaged by ESD of well under 1,000 volts—EPROMs can be damaged by only 100 volts!

If this sounds hard to believe, look at the following stats:

• In low humidity, walking with rubber-soled shoes across a vinyl floor can build up 12,000 volts.

• Pulling tape off a dispenser just 6 inches can build up 4,000 volts.

• Walking across carpet can build up 35,000 volts.

Without a ground path to dissipate the charge, nonconductors like papers, plastics, foam coffee cups, clothing, and people can carry thousands of volts.

While moist air allows charged bodies to slowly drain off an excess charge to ground, dry air inhibits that charge dissipation. Simply adding moisture to indoor air may stop painful charges arcing to your fingertips from light switches in carpeted rooms, but it is not suf-ficient protection for sensitive electronic components. For this protection, a total system that prevents all damage by static must be in place.

Electronic Equipment Damage—Power Related

Today’s electronic equipment relies heavily on the power supplied to it to maintain its reli-ability, yet sometimes the power itself causes its downfall. Power for today’s high speed, fast-computing, and full-featured designs are very susceptible to power anomalies that, less than a decade ago, would have been insignificant. In the reel-to-reel tape recorder days gone by, the higher tape speeds were used for higher fidelity, since any noise was then spread over a wider section of tape. This higher speed works against us in today’s microprocessor clock speeds. A single extraneous pulse lasting a mere millionth of a second can disrupt 1,000 clock pulses in a 1 Ghz microprocessor.

Power anomalies come in a variety of types. Four of the more common ones are surges, sags, transients, and faulty wiring.

Surges

A surge is a prolonged increase in the voltage applied to a circuit that lasts at least one half cycle or more. In today’s common household AC voltage of 120 volts at 60 Hz, that becomes any significant overvoltage that lasts more than 1/120th of a second. These surges can be due to a load that has been on the same line being disconnected (especially in the case of a

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re-recorded and sent to the prop team for its second viewing.

“No different from any other custom solution we build,” said Mark, Jr., “Rice Lake excels in custom program development by keep-ing customer feedback and programming results flexible in order to achieve optimal results. Although software can be modified in the field, our goal is to build in enough structure to the program while still allow-ing flexibility so the system can be adapted to the application after installation.”

After uploading the requested additions to the 920i®, Gary delivered the indicator to Rice Lake’s Testing Engineer Keith Kaiser to ensure the indicator was ready to be calibrated with the scale platform. As the deadline loomed, the scale and indicator were packed off to Hollywood.

As the cameras were placed and the lighting checked, Roger Kimber, western regional director, stepped through the target weight settings and weighing modes so the props team would be familiar with the program-ming established earlier through the video demo. While standing on the scale and adding

more weight, the props team requested that the displayed weight be set up to simulate the needs of the script. Roger quickly cre-ated realistic set points in the user-defined mode which aided the props team during its training and filming and provided the Hollywood-style illusion of specific weight changes.

Soon the props team was ready to present the scale to the director of the premiere. It was important that everything on the scale, from bumper guards to indicator text, was authentic to a warehouse. Form and functionality for the RoughDeck® and 920i system were on the mark.

Scene 5 – Taping the Episode

The stand-in rehearsal allowed Roger to assist with a few more set changes. “I had picked up two cables the night before thinking they may want to operate the scale out of the shot,” he explained. In-deed, the props team requested the option to target the scale out of sight. Within 45 minutes, Roger was able to communicate the necessary changes to Gary in Rice Lake. The command changes were added to the

custom programming, and the scale was now equipped with keyboard shortcut key commands to display the desired target. One last modification to the programming allowed the indicator to display a target weight and then decrease as one of the cast members de-scaled from the group weight. It worked great!

As the final credits rolled on NBC’s The Office® season five opening episode, Rice Lake’s legendary attention to customer ser-vice and flexibility in meeting customers’ custom requirements shined brightly. Rice Lake provided the same celebrity treatment it provides every customer.

Maybe we’ll receive an Emmy for our dra-matic role on a hit television series. n

Roughdeck and 920i are registered trademarks of Rice Lake Weighing Systems. The Office is a registered trademark of nbC. neither nbC nor The Office spon-sors or endorses Rice Lake products.

The Day Hollywood Called Continued from page 4

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purely inductive load such as a large motor) or a change in the supplied voltage from the source or utility. An external source, such as a lightning strike in the vicinity or along a power line, or a power pole event such as a traffic collision or equipment failure, can also cause a surge.

Power surges can affect electronic equip-ment catastrophically if the surge is high enough in overvoltage and duration. This can be as simple as blown fuses or internal power supply damage. However, smaller surges, or faster ones, can also cause dam-age that is not immediately apparent but that shortens the life of the equipment or leads to intermittent behavior. This effect is sometimes referred to as “electronic rust.” An important point to remember when deal-ing with surges is that they do not always result in immediate equipment failure.

Sags

A voltage sag is the opposite of a surge. It is significant reduction in voltage that lasts for one half cycle or more. Although it might be assumed that low voltage would not have an adverse effect, the lower voltage can also put a strain on electronic equip-ment, particularly internal power supplies and other voltage-sensitive circuits, be-cause they try to compensate with voltage that is not there by increasing the current to make up for the loss in power. Sags are not limited to catastrophic failures and also contribute to electronic rust.

Transients

Transients are much shorter in duration and more varied in nature. Rather than a simple over or under voltage, transients can also carry different voltage potentials within them and are the most common cause of electronic equipment power-re-lated maladies.

Transients can be very fast and can be caused by any number of events including the ones listed above. In addition, the introduction of any additional voltage, directly coupled or induced, can produce transients, such as the use of portable two-way radios, microwaves, cordless telephones, cell phones, motors, fluorescent ballast transformers, dimmer switches, and computers. In addition, the

voltage spikes found in transients can be much higher than those found in surges and sags, so they can contribute greatly to electronic rust and degradation of circuits in a short time. Often transients are hard to identify, and it is also difficult to pinpoint their origins.

Faulty wiring

A trained and licensed electrician may need to be involved in troubleshooting and correcting some of these problems. Some power problems masquerade as one of the above categories, but are rooted in faulty wiring. This can include neutral wires that are not grounded at the distribution box, ground wires that develop a low (or high) resistance to ground, and ground wires that are connected to the neutral but not grounded. Any of the above conditions can be caused by simple deterioration of a connection due to weather, temperature swings, rodents, or other outside influ-ences. Some of these conditions not only cause damage to the equipment, but can also pose hazardous, even lethal, condi-tions for operators or personnel that come in contact with the equipment. Always be sure to check local electrical codes and laws concerning electrical installations before undertaking any of these tasks.

Power anomalies conclusion

Many power-related problems can cause immediate or cumulative damage to today’s high speed sophisticated electronic devices including weighing systems. In the next installment, we will look at how to trouble-shoot these problems and take corrective (and preventative) actions to prolong and protect the operation of these devices.

Lightning—Dangerous static electricity!

A little static electricity can shorten the life of electronic equipment, but a lot of lightning can drastically shorten the life of a person. About 60 people every year are killed by lightning. Lightning takes a number of forms, including the common cloud-to-ground and cloud-to-cloud light-ning. However, in cloud-to-ground light-ning, the actual bolt goes from the ground up to the cloud!

Here’s how it works:

When large thunderhead clouds form be-fore a storm, they develop a charge of ex-cess electrons in the bottom of the cloud and therefore have an opposite positive charge at the top of the cloud. These cu-mulonimbus clouds can be anywhere from

¼ to 12 miles above the ground. As they develop this charge, the excess negatively charged electrons begin to descend to the positively charged ground in a seemingly random, but “staircase” pattern, called a leader. This leader is not visible to the naked eye but can be monitored using spe-cialized equipment.

Once the leader reaches a few hundred feet above the earth, a more positively charged region develops between the leader and the earth. This region includes the “tallest object” – which can be you, if you are not careful!

Once these two regions meet a few hun-dred feet in the air, the circuit is complete and the lightning bolt travels from the ground up into the cloud (at approxi-mately 90,000 miles per second!), reliev-ing it of some of the excess charge. The cloud still retains some charge, and the path of the first bolt, made by the leader

and the positively charged ground region, can be used again and again. This is what we see when lightning “flickers.” Many lightning strikes consist of three or four bolts, or discharge paths, along the same path. So, yes, lightning not only CAN but many times DOES strike in the same place twice! (The Empire State Building in New York City is struck by lightning on average 23 times each year and was once struck eight times in 24 minutes.)

Lightning can take a number of forms and all of the details are still not fully un-derstood. The common cloud-to-ground lightning can consist of a 1-million-volt bolt, from ½ to 2 inches in diameter, traveling at approximately half the speed of light. The current in that bolt can be 40,000 amps or 200 times all the current available in the average household!

Cloud-to-cloud or “heat” lightning is sim-ply the discharge of electrons within the

same cloud or to an adjoining one. It is called heat lightning by tradition, but heat really has nothing to do with it.

The thunder that accompanies a lightning bolt results from the expansion of the air around the bolt. A lightning bolt heats the air through which it travels to about three times the temperature of the sun (about 20,000 degrees F) and does it almost in-stantly. The air immediately around the bolt is pushed by this rapidly expanding air which produces a shock wave, that we hear (later) as thunder. The delay oc-curs since light travels at approximately 300,000 km/second (186,000 miles per second) and sound travels at approxi-mately .346 km/sec or 1/1,000,000 of that speed. So, when you see the lightning, count the number of seconds until you hear the thunder and divide by 5 to get the distance that the strike is away from you, in miles. n

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iT HAS been SAid that it’s the differences of opinion that makes horse racing possible. Uncertainty of outcome always makes for an interesting and exhilarating sport, especially when gambling is a cornerstone. However, when Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course built their incredible new facil-

ity, they left nothing to chance. Built on the site of the original track’s grand-

stand, they celebrated their grand opening in early 2008 and invited

Rice Lake along for the ride.

Horse racing is one of our oldest sports. In Eng-

land’s early 1700s, it first became a professional sport. With large mon-

etary stakes tied to predicting the win-

ners of a race and with few regulations in place, early days of the sport were littered with shadiness. One dodge was “sandbagging”; weighing down selected horses or jockeys and betting on horses carrying less weight.

Eventually, regulators caught on and implemented countermeasures—forcing the jockeys, with their tack in hand, to be weighed before and after each race. The riders had to fall within the weight require-ments before the race and after it.

A sport as steeped in tradition and hunches as horse racing often clings to antiquated

equipment. Even today, some tracks con-tinue to use mechanical scales—scales that are prone to weight fluctuations with varying weather conditions, and that are also the frequent victims of scale rage damage from jockeys upset with their weight reading.

Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course upgraded their mechanical scale with the newest, technology-rich solu-tion. “We wanted to do an upgrade in conjunction with the opening of the new building,” said Rob Marella, director of racing. “We talked to Apple One and they presented the Rice Lake scale to us. Once we saw how accurate it was and how easy it was to use, this was really a no-brainer. We had it certified the day it was here, and it’s been as user-friendly and reliable as it could possibly be.”

Albert Felicio, president of Apple One Scale & Calibration, remembers going up against competing bids when Penn Nation-al was making its decision. “The competi-tors had plastic indicators and that sort of thing. The quality just wasn’t there,” Al-bert said. “When I brought in Rice Lake’s DeckHand™ and IQ plus® 390-DC, it really wasn’t comparing a scale to a scale. I had the only real scale available.” He also re-members servicing mechanical scales at area race tracks. “Friday nights around 6:30,” Albert said, “I used to expect a call from the race track to fix their scale.”

After Apple One helped implement the new scales, the improvement was evident. With the old mechanical scale, the weighmaster (responsible for taking and recording all weight readings) could only record weigh-ments in half-pound increments, that is if his eyesight was good enough to make out exactly where the needle was pointing on the faded dial. With the IQ plus 390-DC, however, a highly readable LCD displays weight in 0.1 pound increments.

In addition to the improved weight readout and increased graduations, the system’s portability and durability were important factors in Penn National’s decision to use Rice Lake. “The battery pack allows us to use it in remote locations,” Rob Marella stated, “and the fact that it can withstand

the outdoors is important to our appli-cation—not only the outdoors, but sand, mud and dirt. It’s great that you can just hose it off and it’s ready to go.”

Obviously, a jockey always wants to finish first. However, in the rain, an additional incentive comes into play—not only to fin-ish first, but also to lead for as much of the race as possible. Followers often weigh four pounds more than when they started, pick-ing up four pounds of pure mud along the way. They also go through multiple pairs of eye goggles and turn their vibrant rac-ing colors brown by the end of the race. In comparison, the winner looks like a laun-dry detergent commercial.(And how much is mud?)

“These scales are in all types of industrial applications,” Albert said. “Penn National is easy for them.” He has installed simi-lar applications at other East Coast race tracks, including Rice Lake 120 digital weight indicators with internal battery packs at the Sperryville, Virginia, facility.

At Penn National, Rob Marella anticipates using some of the 390-DC’s additional fea-tures sometime in the future. “It would be great if we got to the point where we wouldn’t have to handwrite all these re-cords,” he said in reference to the indica-tor’s RS-232 capability. Because the track is currently running four days a week and will run five days a week year-round after

it is resurfaced, that’s a lot of handwriting for the weighmaster. Rob looks forward to someday making the weighmaster’s job easier. In the meantime, he’s confi-dent that Rice Lake’s product will stay the course. “Through it all—mud, dirt, rain, and snow, I’m sure the scales will work fine,” Rob says.

Penn National Race Course, Apple One Scale, and Rice Lake Weighing Systems—a perfect trifecta. n

When their horse is running behind the leaders, jockeys often weigh several pounds heavier

after the race than they did before.

Jim Lynch, mid-Atlantic regional director for Rice Lake; (left) Rob marella, director of racing for Penn national Race Track and Albert Felicio, president of Apple One Scale & Calibration.

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foot). The beefed-up OTR consists of a dozen W12-22 lb main beams running the length of the scale. While it maintains a low profile and looks like an ordinary SURVIVOR OTR to the casual observer, a glance under the hood reveals its super powers—much like Clark Kent’s quiet transformation to Superman, though no phone booth is required! The famed super hero may have been more powerful than a locomotive, but he probably would have left the job of having 40-ton trucks drive over him all day long to a Rice Lake product.

Mike Bordino, southeastern regional sales director for Rice Lake, has worked frequently with Superior Scales, Inc. “They really do a first-rate job, every time, without exception,” Mike said. “On this scale, we put an extra 3/8-inch by 36-inch tread plate in the traffic areas—where the wheels hit the scale. That’s in addition to the 3/8-inch tread plate underneath.

“Every OTR has top-accessible load cell pockets,” Mike continued. “This minimizes any downtime when load cells need to be ser-viced. On the competitor’s scale (the aforementioned distorted-deck truck scale now relegated to providing a wading pool for wildlife)‚ you have to get underneath this platform just to get at the load cells. That means about 45 minutes just to gain access to the load cell pocket—before any work is done on the scale itself.” When a typical weigh cycle is roughly one minute, which is the case with the OTR, that lost time could have been used to weigh 45 trucks, or 3,600,000 pounds.

When a 40-ton truck pulls on, one might expect a good deal of settling before things are stable enough to get a solid reading. This was the case on the old scale, which used an old bumper bolt setup to slow the momentum of the bridge. It would sway back and forth, and a solid reading couldn’t be made until it stopped. However, this is not the case with Rice Lake truck scales, which use the G-Force™ self-checking mount system. This system is self-centering and eliminates excessive movement by turning 100 percent of the loading action against itself. The result is faster weigh cycles and less stress on the scale. In fact, the weigh-bridge’s lack of movement when a truck pulls on is reminiscent of a football fan relaxing on the couch on a Sunday afternoon—little to no movement!

The new OTR left an immediate impression on the scale house opera-tors. “It’s great! It’s a real solid scale,” one operator said. “We haven’t had a single problem with it. You can tell it’s a lot heavier duty than the other one. Those old load cells would go out all the time.”

mAnY WeiGHinG FACiLiTieS across the country experience heavy and demanding traffic. But when a typical day involves weighing the equivalent of a WWII aircraft carrier, it puts you in an entirely different league. That’s the situation at a large East Coast lumber mill, where they weigh 24,000 tons of log-filled trucks every day, six days a week (and sometimes seven, depend-ing on need), year-round. That’s approximately 1.5 billion pounds per month and close to 18 billion pounds per year!

Imagine running a marathon, then turning around and running it again without so much as a glass of water—and having to do the same thing for approximately 140 hours each week. That’s com-parable to the duties this facility’s scale must perform, as the line of 80,000-pound trucks often extends far down the entrance. Each one advances in as little as 60 seconds; often, as the just-weighed truck leaves the scale, the next in line pulls on before the previous one is completely off. Surely, any scale expected to perform under these strenuous conditions deserves a great deal of respect. With this kind of demand, it would be tested to its limits, and an ordi-nary truck scale would certainly crumble under the incredible, nonstop workload.

That is exactly what happened to a Rice Lake competitor’s scale after it was installed. Today that scale sits in idle retirement, its undu-lant deck collecting water from rain to make a little waterpark for the nearby wildlife after each storm. Next to it, Rice Lake’s custom-made, beefed-up SURVIVOR® OTR now handles the heavy work-load—though it doesn’t gather rainwater as the old scale does.

“The old scale’s weighbridge broke in half twice during its lifetime,” said Janet Townsend, sales representative for Superior Scales, Inc., which provided service for the old scale. “After the weighbridge had been replaced for the second time, we still had to regularly adjust the bumper bolts and replace the canister-style load cells. Those load cells just couldn’t take the abuse, and the scale had gotten to the point where it couldn’t even be adjusted anymore. There was nothing else we could do. It had to be replaced.”

That was in July of this year, when the lumber mill decided to go in a different direction and turn to Rice Lake. With an extremely heavy workload in mind, a custom retrofit OTR was designed to conform to the old scale’s existing foundation and accommodate the demanding conditions. An OTR, which already uses up to 30 percent more steel than the competition, features W12-14 lb I-beams (depth of 12 inches and a nominal weight of 14 pounds per

Indeed, load cell protection is a key differentiator between the OTR and its competitors. Integrated load cell pockets in Rice Lake truck scales are built inside the outer I-beam, rather than mount-ed on an exterior beam. With exterior beam mounted load cell pockets, excessive bending and flexing occurs, causing damage to the weighbridge and load cells. In this case, the strength of a Rice Lake SURVIVOR that wouldn’t buckle under the daily punishment was clearly the hero.

The beefed-up OTR is able to avoid downtime—critical at this heavy traffic facility, and Rice Lake was able to construct a custom scale to fit the unique, heavy traffic needs. It may not be confused with a bird or a plane, or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but this more-powerful-than-a-locomotive OTR is certain-ly something super. n

There’s more to see! view this article online for enhanced features, including video of the OTR’s quick settling functionality as 40-ton trucks pull onto its deck. visit www.ricelake.com/ricelakemagazine to access the e-magazine.

mike bordino, southeastern regional director, and Janet Townsend, sales representative with Superior Scales, acting out “it’s a bird! it’s a plane! no, it’s SURvivOR!”

Faster! More powerful!

able to weigh 24,000 tons and more in a single day,

every day!

TM

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Rice Lake shows up in famous places.

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ShowmanshipHealthweigh

Scale

TOSSEDout of the ring…

JAmie PeTeRSOn, service manager for A-1 Scale Company in Wisconsin, reports that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) called to rent a battery-operated 500-pound-capacity scale for the live televised weigh-in of Floyd Mayweather and “Big Show.”

At the weigh-in, the opponents didn’t wait for the pay-per-view match to mix it up. First came name-calling and fin-ger-jabbing. Then Mayweather tossed the Healthweigh Scale ten feet out of the ring. Big Show threw Mayweather out of the ring. When Jamie got the scale upright again, it zeroed perfectly. Big Show weighed in at precisely 404 pounds. On with the show. n

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Team Spirit on a Grand Scale…

Wire rope for theDeadliest Catch…TOm vAn FLeeT, president of Peninsula Scale in Soldotna, Alaska, had to move fast for the crew of the Time Bandit. That’s the ship that plies the Bering Sea in search of the Deadliest Catch® on the Discovery Channel. The ship was in port for a brief call before it had to head out again. They needed to replace their wire ropes that were too rusted to be safe.

That’s not a Rice Lake product, but Tom called Roni Engen, his favorite Rice Lake customer service representative. Roni located the wire rope and had it sent to Alaska overnight express. Now there’s a photo of the Rice Lake shipping department in a place of honor in the office of the Time Bandit’s skipper. Tom Van Fleet, pictured on the deck of the Time Bandit, says when he calls Rice Lake, he insists on working with Roni. n

Tom van Fleet, pictured on the deck of the Time Bandit, insists

on working with Roni engen.

Roni engen, inside sales.

JOHn CHeneY, president of Abacus Scales & Systems in Chicago, had the right contacts to get his foot in the door of the Chicago Blackhawks’ locker room. He asked Rice Lake to powder coat the Blackhawks® insignia on the platform of a RoughDeck® SS equipped with an IQ plus® 355 indicator.

Then Sean Skahan, strength and conditioning coach for the Anaheim Ducks®, saw the Blackhawks’ scale, and had to have the Ducks logo on the RoughDeck SS he ordered with a portability cart.

Next, Herm Schneider, head trainer for the Chicago White Sox®, had to have the White Sox logo on his scale. Now John Cheney has the scale equipment standardized and the White Sox have their team logo on a Rice Lake DeckHand equipped with an IQ plus® 390 indicator. n

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230 W. Coleman Street Rice Lake WI 54868

Change Service Requested

Call us. We answer.Need assistance with a weight-related process control or data collection application? Need to verify the appropriate load cell configuration for a vessel or tank? Network integration questions? Whatever your question, a real live person answers our phone and you'll soon talk with an expert who has your answer. Call 800-472-6703.

Go to www.ricelake.com for more information and to request a copy of our White Paper “Weight Related Process Control —Things You Need to Know.”