Weight Indicators of Tomorrow

“Moore’s Law” has held fast for almost half a century. In 1965, Intel® co-founder Gordon E. Moore observed that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit would increase exponentially approximately every two years. Weight indicators are changing and here is how we can help.

This abundance of computing power has exploded the capabilities of digital electronic devices and Human Machine Interface (HMI) indicators. Our manufacturer, Rice Lake, carries the 920i® which is capable of a myriad of display and memory options. They are literally computing devices in and of themselves; having the power and speed to keep up with the ever-increasing pace of manufacturing and process control in any aspect of industry. Over 100,000 calculations can be done in milliseconds, and the results can be transmitted anywhere in the world almost instantaneously.

As HMI indicators become more powerful, the machines and processes they control can become more complex. So complex that the HMI becomes critical to the usefulness of the machine itself. If the HMI is non-intuitive, the machine will be unused, misused or avoided.

Therefore, the ideal HMI indicator must be like the ultimate assistant who anticipates the need, expresses itself in a familiar manner, and produces the desired results with a minimum of prompting. Or, the duck that slides effortlessly over the water while paddling furiously below. The 920i has the power and flexibility to make nearly any process appear effortless.

Some customers send us the sequence of events they want followed, and we send them a custom programmed 920i. Others are virtuoso programmers who use open architecture to program the 920i to control incredibly complex operations. They become our partners in refining future Rice Lake indicators. All of them are finding new applications — new ways to increase functionality and ease-of-use for their end-users.