Weighing news - Digital Scales Blog

Where to find weighing industry news

In this post I will attempt to compile a list of news sources and news gathering strategies for the weighing industry. This is a work in progress, please do not hesitate to leave a comment with additional (good quality) sources and ideas.

Manufacturers and dealers

An obvious starting point are the websites of weighing equipment manufactures. Many have a news page that you can check periodically. This task can be automated with software or services that monitor websites and notify you of changes. Some websites may also still offer RSS news feeds.

While websites of weighing equipment dealers are rarely an original source of industry news, they can be helpful in finding additional manufacturers as dealers usually indicate which brands they sell.

Specialized weighing news websites

A good example (and the only one I am currently aware of) is the Weighing Review Portal, which also publishes the Weighing News newsletter.

Industry associations, regulatory bodies and similar organizations

Social media

LinkedIn is the most promising candidate: Other than companies and individuals, you’ll also find groups such as Weighing, Automation & Process Control Industry Professionals and Weighing Systems 4.0. One downside of LinkedIn are the motivational quotes and the tons of LinkedIn cringe you may encounter.

Sometimes Facebook and Twitter offer different content from LinkedIn. Depending on the country, other social media platforms may be more popular.

YouTube is also considered a social media platform, but the most popular videos about weighing equipment that you’ll find there are primarily made for entertainment purposes. However, if you’re interested in a specific device or niche category of weighing instruments, it can still be worthwhile to do a search.

Google Alerts

Once you’ve entered a search term (e.g. the name of a weighing equipment manufacturer), this service will alert you by email when it finds new matching results on the internet. In order to keep the quantity and quality of the alerts at a manageable level, I recommend restricting the frequency to once per week (or less) and choosing only the most relevant results.

Trade fairs

Aside from the current pandemic, the biggest challenge with trade shows is that weighing instruments are used in almost every industry and span a wide range from consumer goods over medical devices to industrial solutions. Trade shows that exclusively feature weighing instruments are therefore the exception. If and when the situation returns to normal, I will compile a relevant list.

‘World with weighing’ campaign lauched by CECIP

CECIP, the European weighing industry association, has launched a campaign to “to make the general public and businesses aware of the importance of reliable and accurate weighing”.

From the announcement on the CECIP website (released on March 15, 2021):

The CECIP campaign focusses on the impact of weighing in daily life and in the operations of businesses. Although businesses generally understand the need for weighing, it is not always understood what the impact of inaccurate weighing could be. Yet, it can impact the core business when weighing results are not correct. For production companies inaccurate weighing of ingredients or parts can harm the quality of the final products. This is not always clear and CECIP hopes more business will be conscious about the importance of reliable weighing and the consequences weighing accuracy can have on their operations.
Overall, the campaign aims at making consumers, users and buyers of weighing instruments understand that weighing is not just the value you see on the display of a scale, but a vital process that contributes to our world functioning smoothly.
As part of the campaign the key messages will be spread via social media, magazines and the dedicated website: www.worldwithweighing.com.

The campaign website is currently showing a suspension notice:

LAUMAS expands to the United States and Canada

Italian weighing instrument manufacturer LAUMAS is now also operating in North America. A large stock of products is available (including load cells, weight indicators, weight transmitters and mounting kits) as well as technical support based in the US.

You can read the manufacturer’s announcement here or visit the North American website laumas-us.com.

Although most Laumas instruments are designed for use in industrial weighing applications, I have found that their innovative features and excellent price/performance ratio make them a good choice in many other areas as well. I plan to publish several projects on this blog under the Laumas tag in the coming months.