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A&D Gulf
Buying Guide 7 min read

Pallet Truck Scale, Platform Scale or Floor Scale — Which Does Your Warehouse Need?

Published by A&D Gulf Technical Team  · 

The decision is your workflow, not the hardware: if you need a weight for every pallet as part of moving it, a pallet-truck scale wins; if you weigh at a fixed station and the number matters, a platform or floor scale is more accurate for less money; if you are weighing vehicles, nothing below a weighbridge will do. Most warehouses need two of these, not one — a convenience weight on the move, and an accurate bench or platform where the numbers feed invoices, batch records or shipping documents.

The four options at a glance

Option How it works Typical capacity Accuracy character Best for
Pallet-truck scale Scale built into a hand pallet jack — weigh while lifting ~2,000 kg class Convenience-grade A weight on every pallet, zero extra handling
Bench / compact platform Fixed scale on a bench or trolley 1 – 150 kg High — down to grams Cartons, drums, parcels, goods-in checks
Floor platform (load-cell system) Low-profile platform + indicator, ramp or pit mounted 500 kg – several tonnes High Full pallets, IBCs, cages at a station
Weighbridge Vehicle-scale deck + indicator 30 – 80 t Site-level system Trucks in and out — see our weighbridge guide

Weighing on the move: pallet-truck scales

A pallet-truck scale answers one question — what does this pallet weigh? — at the moment you are already moving it. No detour to a scale station, no second lift. The honest trade-off: it is a moving, knock-prone instrument, so treat its readings as operational weights (load planning, courier estimates, stock movements). If a reading will set a price on an invoice, raise that at the quotation stage — see the legal-for-trade note below.

Weighing at a station: bench and platform scales (1 – 150 kg)

This is where accuracy lives, and where A&D's warehouse and platform range is deepest.

SW series — heavy-duty bench scales, 6 kg – 150 kg at 1 g – 20 g readability, built as high-pressure washdown instruments (IP69K construction): goods-in checks and dispatch weighing where grams matter, including wet areas.

FG series — 30 – 150 kg with 1-second stabilisation, AC or battery power, and optional RS-232C for feeding a PC or printer. The FG-CWP washdown version (IP67, all stainless) serves food and wet processes.

SC (platform) and SE (floor-style) series — 30 – 150 kg workhorses at 5 – 20 g.

SK-WP compacts — 1 – 30 kg, IP65, stainless, roughly 1,200 hours on alkaline batteries: the take-anywhere option for warehouses without power points at every station.

Weighing full pallets: floor platforms built on load cells

A loaded pallet typically weighs far more than any bench scale's capacity. The standard solution is a low-profile floor platform — a load-cell frame plus a digital indicator — sized to your pallet footprint and capacity (commonly 1 – 3 t), with ramps for pallet-truck access or pit-mounting for a flush floor. We supply the weighing system — load cells, indicators, calibration — as covered in our weighbridge indicators and load cells guide; the same components scale from a pallet platform up to a vehicle weighbridge.

If you bill by weight, stop here first

Scales whose readings set the price of a transaction generally fall under UAE legal-metrology verification requirements — in Dubai that process sits with Dubai Municipality. Weighing for internal control, stock counts and logistics planning is a different category. Tell us at the quotation stage if your scale will be used for trade so the configuration is chosen accordingly, and see our legal-for-trade guide for how verification works in Dubai.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a pallet-truck scale accurate enough to invoice customers?
Use it for operational weights — load planning, estimates, internal moves. If a reading will set the price on an invoice, raise that with us at the quotation stage and see our legal-for-trade guide: trade use changes which instrument is appropriate.
What capacity do I need for pallet weighing?
Cover your heaviest realistic pallet plus the pallet's own weight with margin — for most general cargo that means a 1.5 – 2 t platform. Under-sizing is the expensive mistake; a platform at its capacity limit has no headroom for the occasional heavy load.
Bench scale or floor scale?
Decide by what you lift: if goods come to the scale by hand (cartons, drums to ~150 kg), a bench or platform scale is cheaper and more accurate. If goods arrive on a pallet truck, the scale must come down to the floor — a ramp or pit platform.
Do warehouse scales need mains power?
No — the FG series runs on batteries as well as AC, and the SK-WP compacts run roughly 1,200 hours on alkaline batteries. Battery scales solve the no-socket-at-the-dock-door problem cleanly.
We weigh fish and meat in a wet area — which platform?
That is the washdown family — IP-rated stainless construction (FG-CWP at IP67, SK-WP at IP65, SW at IP69K). Our fish and meat scales guide covers the wet-area range in detail.
Are these in stock in Dubai?
Availability is confirmed per model with your quotation — message us on WhatsApp with your capacities and workflow and we will confirm stock and delivery.

Still weighing up your options?

Tell our JAFZA technical team what you are measuring and we will tell you which instrument fits — no obligation.

Have a question about this topic?

A&D Gulf's technical team in JAFZA can advise on instrument selection, calibration requirements, and application-specific needs.

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