3 c-cal calibration – Rice Lake MSI-4260 Port-A-Weigh User Manual

Page 40

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36 MSI-4260 Port-A-Weigh Operator’s Manual

Due to LFT requirements and general scale design criteria, the weight must be stable

for certain features to work: ZERO – Weight must be stable to be Zeroed. TARE –

Weight must be stable to be Tared. TOTAL – Weight must be stable to be added to the

total registers. One way to improve the stability is to increase the filtering, at the risk

of increasing settling time. The other is to increase the ‘d’ (reduce resolution). The

third way is to increase the “Motion Window”. The MSI-4260 defaults to ±1d as a

motion window. It can be changed at MSI to a higher value if desired. Often ±3d is

chosen for bridge cranes as these tend to have a lot of bounce to them. This of course

carries an accuracy penalty adding ±3 d to the total accuracy of the scale if the zero or

tare operation happens to capture the weight in a valley or peak.
Setting capacity is dictated primarily by the capability of the load cell. MSI supplies

the MSI-4260 in many capacities.

Note

Never set the capacity of the scale higher than the rating of the load cell.

Due to excellent linearity of the MSI S-Beam load cell, it is acceptable to set lower

capacities to better match the crane the MSI-4260 is used on. For example, if the hoist

is rated for 9000 lb, you can use an MSI 10000 lb MSI 4260 and reset the capacity to

9000 lb so that the Scale will indicate overload at 9000 lb instead of 10000 lb.

Derating as much as 50% of the capacity is usually acceptable, but the scale may be

less stable if the ‘d’ is decreased.
Due to kg to lb conversions, the capacity of all MSI-4260 systems is rated

approximately 20% higher than the rated capacity in pounds. This is to allow the kg

capacity to be exactly 1/2 the number of the pounds capacity.

5.3 C-Cal Calibration

When adequate test weights are not available, the MSI-4260 can be calibrated using a

programmed constant calibration which is referred to as C-Cal. To use C-Cal, a C-Cal

number must be known from a previous calibration. MSI supplies replacement load

cells for the MSI-4260 with the C-Cal value stamped on the serial number label.

When a calibration is performed with test weights, a new C-Cal is generated. C-Cal

can be used when the electronics are replaced to get an approximate calibration that

may be suitable for non L-F-T applications.

Important

The C-Cal number must be known prior to starting this
procedure. For a

MSI-4260

with its original Load Cell, MSI prints

this number on the Calibration Record, the Serial number tag,
and on the calibration log found inside the battery compartment.

C-Calibration reduces slightly the absolute accuracy of the system if the electronics

are replaced or a new load cell is installed, and is intended for non-critical use only.

Legal-for-Trade installations require that the MSI-4260 is calibrated using test

weights. If a system was originally multi-point calibrated, the C-CAL calibration will

erase the additional span points, as C-Cal is only a two point calibration (Zero and

Span at 10% of capacity).

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