Does it have to do with accuracy?
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Balances are simple, durable and easy to fix. I’ve got an Ohaus balance from the late 1920s that I picked up on eBay for next to nothing because it wasn’t working.
It was dirty and rusty, but otherwise fine–was able to get it working perfectly with some cleaning, oiling, and gentle sanding.
Out of curiosity, I did a comparison with a calibrated digital lab scale at my school. Using a balance takes a *little* bit of skill and it’s slower, but until you get down to very small weights, it is every bit as accurate.
It might be old, but why would you get rid of or replace something that does the job just fine??
Digital and mechanical (non-digital) scales can have the same accuracy if properly designed and maintained. But both types can also be designed cheaply for not so accurate applications. There is a different design for legal for trade applications (say buying produce at the store), and non-legal for trade applications (say you doctor’s office scale). There is also a speed of weighing factor where digital scales can generally provide a faster weight reading. Your doctor’s office scale needs neither legal for trade accuracy nor speed of weighing, so a balance beam may be less expensive, and/or more reliable than digital.
As someone else pointed out there is a bit of a dramatic effect with the mechanical scales as well.
Digital and mechanical (non-digital) scales can have the same accuracy if properly designed and maintained. But both types can also be designed cheaply for not so accurate applications. There is a different design for legal for trade applications (say buying produce at the store), and non-legal for trade applications (say you doctor’s office scale). There is also a speed of weighing factor where digital scales can generally provide a faster weight reading. Your doctor’s office scale needs neither legal for trade accuracy nor speed of weighing, so a balance beam may be less expensive, and/or more reliable than digital.
As someone else pointed out there is a bit of a dramatic effect with the mechanical scales as well.
I also think it has something to do with visibility. Most digital sces ha e the display on the scale base which is easy to read if you are standing on it yourself but not if you are standing behind or next to the person standing on it, especially if you are shorter.
I also think it has something to do with visibility. Most digital sces ha e the display on the scale base which is easy to read if you are standing on it yourself but not if you are standing behind or next to the person standing on it, especially if you are shorter.
They just look cooler.
For hospitals it’s because the scales are most likely older than you. Seriously they are often decades old.
They just look cooler.
For hospitals it’s because the scales are most likely older than you. Seriously they are often decades old.
The answers you have got here are all right. But I think there is one more thing to it that people tend to forget,
If you need to purchase, say, two thousand scales for a hospital, how many of them do you expect to have left in service after ten years? Nearly all of them.
After 15 years? A bit fewer.
After 20 years? As many as actually works. And you probably have a storage room full of spare parts form slaughtered units that have been recently decommissioned.
After 25 years? Probably still at least a handful.
If old equipment does the job right, there is pretty much no use to replace it just because the newer thing looks cooler.
Once it breaks down for good, it’ll be replaced with what’s considered the standard of today. But as long as it works and you can acquire spare parts to keep it working, you are not going to just throw it away because of *age*.
The answers you have got here are all right. But I think there is one more thing to it that people tend to forget,
If you need to purchase, say, two thousand scales for a hospital, how many of them do you expect to have left in service after ten years? Nearly all of them.
After 15 years? A bit fewer.
After 20 years? As many as actually works. And you probably have a storage room full of spare parts form slaughtered units that have been recently decommissioned.
After 25 years? Probably still at least a handful.
If old equipment does the job right, there is pretty much no use to replace it just because the newer thing looks cooler.
Once it breaks down for good, it’ll be replaced with what’s considered the standard of today. But as long as it works and you can acquire spare parts to keep it working, you are not going to just throw it away because of *age*.
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