Singapore
SURVIVOR® PT up in record time and 920® holds the spice

Singapore — Singapore is an island country that embraces 63 islands that are actually growing in land area, fed by on going land reclamation projects. Earth from Singapore’s own hills and seabed and neighboring countries hasenlarged its original 224 square miles to 271 square miles today. Another 38 square miles are planned to be added by 2030.

As further proof of Singapore’s enterprising spirit, last September the country was rated as having the most business-friendly economy in the world by the World Bank. Which makes a fine and fertile base for Goldbell Weigh-System Pte Ltd. Steven Lim opened Goldbell Weigh-Systems in 1993 and has been the Rice Lake distributor in Singapore for more than 10 years.

In 2005, the first truck scale system to be shipped direct from the United States to Singapore was installed by Goldbell at SMA Peakmore Pte Ltd, a local recycling
and trading company dealing in steel and scrap metal, it was a Rice Lake SURVIVOR® PT Series 60 x 10 foot pit type truck scale system, 920i, iQUBE® 8-channel Smart Junction Box with two fiber optic to serial converters.

The total excavation, construction, installation and instrumentation took two months to complete. In Singapore’s tropical rainforest climate, where the average humidity is 90 percent in the morning and 60 percent in the afternoon, the concrete deck took only seven days to cure.

How did they accomplish that record drying time? We asked Richard Tan. “We modified the soffit of the slab a bit. Instead of using corrugated sheets, we used a material called Condeck™ which is a system that interlocks each individual sheet together forming a solid working platform. The ribbed shape stiffens the whole platform where ordinary corrugated GI sheets would not. We used high-strength quick-setting Grade 45 concrete that gains sufficient strength within seven days that ordinary Grade 30 would not be able to achieve. Before loading the bridge, we did a field test on the density of the concrete by means of a rebound hammer test. Theoretical calculations over strength gain are 75 percent at seven days, which is 22.5N/mm2 for normal Grade 30, and 33.7N/mm2 for a Grade 45. The actual results achieved averaged 39 to 42N/mm2.” Seven days later, CMA Peakmore began using their 80-ton capacity concrete deck weighbridge and has never had a minute of downtime.

Another happy customer of Goldbell is the Lee Kwang Kee Seafood Restaurants that have sprouted up all over Singapore’s islands. Their system is made up of stainless steel platform scales controlled by 920i s with custom iRite® software.

The system has helped to monitor certain key ingredients that the chefs use in preparing the unique seafood dishes. The system also helps balance the outflow of ingredients against collected revenue, as well as keeping tabs on each chef’s skills.

Rebound hammer tests
surface hardness of concrete

The concrete impact test rebound hammer uses an elastic force to transmit the impact force to the surface of the concrete where the initial kinetic energy is redistributed.
Part of the energy, in the form of plastic deformation,
is absorbed by the concrete. Another part of the
energy, which is proportional to the surface
hardness of the concrete, is transmitted
to the impact hammer, making it “resile” or
bounce back. The strength of the concrete
is then derived from the propor tional
relationship between the measure of
resilience and the concrete strength.

The operator, or chef, places an empty container on the scale and presses the tare key, then adds the secret ingredients. When the weight on the scale exceeds the minimum threshold, the weight is recorded. When the container is removed from the scale, the last stable weight reading, time and date are recorded in the database.

It all sounds a bit clinical for the art of preparing seafood delicacies, but Lee Kwang Kee Seafoods’ owner considers the information critical to establishing excellent quality while ensuring the highest return on investment.
Not too much spice, please!