Customers weigh up a new option

At last year’s Commercial Vehicle Show, Fruehauf unveiled a new option in onboard weighers, the Mx Onboard. Since then its popularity has grown to the point where it is now fitted to 97% of everything Fruehauf builds.

It was developed by David Smith, design engineer with Mx Onboard. David is an electronics engineer with over 30 years experience in the hardware and software design for industrial and trade weighing industry. “The onboard weighing market was being dominated by one supplier, who seemed determined to develop ever more sophisticated products with all sorts of extras built in” said David. “That’s fine if you want all those extras, but adds unnecessary cost and risk if all you want is a weigher. It also has implications in restricting where you can have your weigher maintained.”

David’s remit was to develop an accurate and highly durable weigher that would stand up to the extremes of vibration, water ingress, dust and debris that it would be subjected to in an everyday operational environment. The result was a design using tried and tested components within two waterproof boxes giving the added benefit of keeping the screen clean and the display clearly visible. The display itself has an LED display, which is much brighter and easier to read than competitors’ LCD displays.

Although there is no intention of moving away from the original philosophy of providing a simple weigher only, the range has been extended to include a remote display and a version suitable for rigids, with solutions suitable for waste management vehicles planned for 2007. The Mx load cells are also suitable for use with other manufacturer’s in cab displays.

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