Load cell ensures Leon's compliance

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 16, 2003

To ensure that its products operate throughout Europe, Leon Engineering has designed a practical, yet accurate range of retail scales that meet all the desired EU standards.

To ensure that its products operate throughout Europe, Leon Engineering has designed a practical, yet accurate range of retail scales that meet all the desired EU standards.

A key component in achieving this is the Vishay Tedea-Huntleigh 1042 single point load cell.

The European Union is one of the world's most lucrative marketplaces.

It presents consumers with a vast selection of products to browse through and provides suppliers with a level playing field on which to promote their services.

One company which is taking full advantage of this fertile environment is Leon Engineering - a leading manufacturer and designer of electronic weighing devices in Greece and throughout the rest of Europe.

Based in Athens, Leon Engineering has grown into an international supplier of weighing equipment by concentrating its efforts on developing new products that exude quality and flexibility.

This policy, Alexandros Varelas, Assistant Product Manager at Leon Engineering, explains has led to collaborations with major Greek companies, international OEMs and European system integrators.

"In our local market we manufacture products for both end users and distributors.

Outside Greece, our products are supplied to industrial and retail manufacturers, and distribution agents".

Leon Engineering's reputation for innovation was secured with the launch of the now renowned Athena range of retail scales.

Featuring the Vishay Tedea-Huntleigh 1042 single-point load cells, Alexandros says the EU-type-approved scales were an immediate success.

"The scales sold well right from the start because Leon Engineering was a well-known manufacturer of industrial weighing equipment and the leading local-market supplier.

This was important, but to maintain this position we also had to deliver a scale that provided the highest quality and accuracy".

Alexandros asserts: "Vishay Transducers load cells are extremely important to the Athena range as the quality of the product is very closely related to the quality of the load cell".

With a capacity up to 100kg, the Vishay Tedea-Huntleigh 1042 low-profile single-point load cell is the ideal measurement tool for the markets Alexandros says Leon Engineering wanted to target with the Athena range.

"Since there are five Athena scales in the range, there is a scale suitable for almost all weighing applications, including fish shops, grocery stores, bakeries and open markets.

This, of course, means the scales are exposed to all kinds of hot, cold, messy, wet, and dusty environments".

Featuring a six-wire (sense) circuit, which compensates for changes in lead resistance resulting from temperature change and/or cable extension, the 1042 is ideal for applications where environmental conditions can be varied.

What's more, a special humidity-resistant coating ensures long-term stability over the entire compensated temperature range, which extends from -30 to +70C.

Alexandros explains that as Leon Engineering's scales are sold in 50 countries worldwide - the majority of which are in Europe - meeting and exceeding European standards is extremely important.

Consequently, Leon Engineering takes great care in designing equipment that meets EU directives, such as the European standard EN45501 and EU-type approval DK.0199.18.

Unsurprising, with such a heavy emphasis placed on meeting European prerequisites, Leon Engineering makes sure that its suppliers build their components to similar specifications.

The Vishay Tedea-Huntleigh 1042 high-accuracy load cell meets these very specific requirements by holding an OIML approval to 6000 divisions, a NTEP approval to 5000 divisions and an IP66 protection rating.

This is possible due to the considerable experience of Vishay Transducers in designing accurate and reliable load cells that offer constant measurement regardless of the environment.

Alexandros says one of the main challenges facing Leon Engineering is keeping up with demand from customers in both Greece and abroad.

"Since we supply our technology to many different countries, we must meet European technology standards and provide value for money and quality assurance.

Vishay Tedea-Huntleigh's load cells, and in particular the 1042, help us achieve these goals".