Installation and Startup

To ensure the best performance of Hardy products, we recommend that you consider adding Hardy Installation to your product purchase. Great products without a quality installation risk long-term performance and availability, and Hardy has a broad network of trained service agents to perform, inspect, and commission new installations.

Hardy offers preferred rates for new installations and we guarantee that the installation will be done right the first time. Plus, with the use of the Hardy Toolbox features like C2 Electronic calibration, Hardy Technicians spend less time on site than the competition, saving you cost and downtime.

For a fast and easy installation quote, please contact one of our service specialists at 800-821-5831 option 4, or email us at hardysupport@hardysolutions.com.

Powering Up Your Hardy Product for the First Time

Below is a checklist for installation and startup.  

Check that load cells are properly installed.

1. Level, solid mounting base.
2. The load cell is mounted right side up.
3. All load cell bolts installed using anti-seize compounds.
4. Mechanically aligned to compensate for expansion and contraction.
5. Protected from forklifts and adjacent processing equipment.
6. Ensure all shipping brackets have been removed. (Shipping brackets are painted red)

Keep the ground cable length to earth ground as short as possible.
1. Install a new ground rod if the cable length is excessive.
2. Verify Chassis ground and earth ground connections are less than one ohm.
3. Ground straps must be installed to provide a direct discharge path to ground around the load points.
4. Verify the voltage from common to ground is less than ONE vac.
5. Never route low voltage cable in with or bundled to high voltage cable.
6. Separate high voltage sources and cables from low voltage signal cables. Stay a minimum of 14 inches from Magnetic fields and SCR controls. Avoid parallel high voltage and signal cable runs.
7. Use the Hardy Instruments C2® certified cable from the controller to the Hardy Junction Box. This to insure communications with the C2® and the Integrated Technician functions. 

Cable Shielding
1. Ground low voltage cable shields only at the controller end.
2. Grounding both cable ends will produce ground currents.
3. Verify, with an ohmmeter, the shield is only grounded at the weight controller.
4. Disconnect the shield at the controller and check for an open circuit between ground and shield. Reconnect the shield to ground and confirm a proper ground path from the Junction Box to the controller.
5. Verify the shield is not connecting to ground at the Junction Box.
6. Load cell cable shields only pass thru the Junction Boxes and are not connected to ground at that point.
7. DO NOT CUT LOAD CELL CABLE!!!

Check proper load cell wiring to summing card enclosure. Correct any wiring errors. Then Check proper wiring from summing card to scale indicator utilizing C2® cable. Correct any wiring errors.

Check that platform and exposed parts of the scale are clean and dry.
1. No workers are physically on the scale.
2. Must protect equipment from environmental damage.
3. Ensure openings are sealed to keep water and environmental contaminates from damaging:
       a. Instrument cabinet or enclosure.
       b. Junction Box or Summing card.
       c. Load Cells.
       d. Conduit runs.
       e. All covers are properly installed.

4. Local traffic does not interact with the installation. For example, protected from forklifts and adjacent processing equipment. 
5. The live load section of the scale is isolated from the support structure.
6. Conduits and cables are not attached to the scale and the support structure without proper slack.
7. If you can shake the pipe or conduit, it is considered flexible.

Check that all piping and conduits are flexible.
1. Keep flexures on the horizontal
2. Vertical flexures should be avoided
3. Do not use flexures to correct for misaligned piping
4. Do not use hose flexures to make right angle bends.  
5. Non-flexed piping should have an unsupported horizontal run using a ratio of 36 times its diameter. Pipe flexure lengths should be a ratio of six times it's diameter
6. Feed and discharge piping flexed in the right direction
7. Are the flex joints on the correct side of the valve?
8. You weigh the output valve, not the input valve
9. Does the weigh scale see the entire product to be weighed?
10. If the product applies a force to a valve or pipe, that pipe or valve must be included in the weigh vessel.
11. Proper positioning of the flexures is key.
12. Your vessel must flex, vertically and horizontally.

Physical Grounding
Ensure all common equipment shares a common ground point.

Cabling
Cuts or breaks in the load cell cable insulation allow moisture to wick into the cable and load points. This can setup stray capacitance charges and allow ground currents to exist. This could create a highly intermittent situation.

Cable Shielding
1. Check proper load cell wiring to summing card enclosure. Correct any wiring errors.
2. Check proper wiring from summing card to scale indicator utilizing C2® cable. Correct any wiring errors.

Check for mechanical isolation from ladders and connecting structures.
Floors or structure do not interact with the scale system

Check that all piping and conduits are flexible.
Keep flexures on the horizontal

Check the level of the scale with the help of level. Adjust level, if not leveled.
On floor scales ensure the feet have been unscrewed so as not to interfere with scale deck from underneath.

Use Computer clean AC power.
VFD units can produce extreme voltage disturbances that power conditioning transformers are not equipped to filter. An Active Tracking filter is required for these high frequency spikes that can scramble the system memory.

Power up the instrument
Settings for proper start-up

1. Set Units
   a. Pounds (lb) - Default
   b. Ounces (oz)
   c. Pounds/Ounces (lb/oz)
   d. Ton (Ton) Short ton
   e. Kilograms (Kg)
   f. Grams (G)
   g. Metric Ton (t) Long ton
2. Set capacity (total capacity of all installed load cells)
3. Set Decimal point. (Range:0-5 (Default=2)
4. Set Display increments/graduations. (Range: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 (Default=1)
5. Set Motion tolerance. (Range:.000001-999999 base motion tolerance level is calculated by multiplying 0.03% times the load sensor capacity. (Default=10)
6. Zero tolerance. (Range:.000001-999999 ZERO TOLERANCE could be considered the manual zero button and is a parameter that allows the gross weight to be set to a zero value. This is done by manually pressing the front display's upper left "ZERO" button. The Zero Tolerance parameter is an accumulative plus and minus limit and a setting of 10 will allow an accumulative weight of +10 to -10 units. If the weight is outside of the accumulated tolerance, ERROR 6 is displayed. To clear ERROR 6, you will need to clean your tank to remove the accumulated build-up or increase the ZERO TOLERANCE value (Default=10)
7. Number of averages. (1-250, Averaging is used to ignore the impact of product moving on and off the scale. (Default=10)
8. Set the WAVERSAVER®  value OFF, 0.25Hz-25Hz, WAVERSAVER® is a proprietary algorithm designed by
Hardy Process Solutions to ignore in-plant vibration that causes fluctuations in weight readings. (Default=OFF)
9.  Set Communication options
10.  Set Calibration (See Calibration)