The primary purpose of industrial scales is to simply weigh objects. How much of each chemical is being fed into this mixture? How much do those boxes weigh that are being loaded onto the truck? How many metal stampings are in the container? However, sometimes, it is just as important to collect this weight data from electronic scales as it is to do the actual weighing. It may be useful to keep track of how quickly the inventory of metal stampings is being used, what the total weight is of each truck that is leaving the warehouse, and the total quantity of chemicals that is used over the course of the week.

This data recording can be done by humans. However, this opens up the possibility of human error-the data may be recorded incorrectly. Sometimes, digital scales may be connected to a computer using a standard communication protocol such as RS-232. But if the computer is not in the vicinity of the scale, this introduces the issue of running long lengths of wire which is both expensive and time-consuming.

Scale manufacturers that offer the newest technologies, like Arlyn Scales, now make electronic scales with optional built-in Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports. Standard USB thumb drives can be plugged into these ports, and weight data from the industrial scale can be recorded on these memory devices. The digital scale can be programmed to automatically load the data on its screen onto the thumb drive at pre-set intervals such as every hour, every minute, or even several times a second. Or, an operator can press a button on the control panel of the scale to record the data at that point.