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Thurman Scale history, since 1918

A century of
heavy-duty weighing

Thurman started as a Columbus, Ohio machine shop in 1918 and built its first motor-vehicle scale in 1948. Today it's part of the Fairbanks Scales family.

A Thurman crew in hard hats and high-visibility shirts guiding a suspended orange Diamondback weighbridge module down onto its mounts inside a concrete batch plant, a service truck crane holding the load.
A Diamondback going in. A distributor crew landing a weighbridge module on its mounts during a field-pour installation. Thurman photograph.
PORTABLE SCALEMANUFACTURED BYHURMANSCALE CO.precision scales since 1918COLUMBUS, OHIO

Precision scales, since 1918

Long before there was a website to say it on, the company was putting the same three facts on the side of a building: what it made, where it made it, and how long it had been at it. Columbus, Ohio. 1918. The portable scale that put Thurman in the truck-weighing business is the product advertised on the sign.

1918
Founded as a machining company in Columbus, Ohio.
1948
Builds the first Thurman motor-vehicle scale.
1995
Joins the Fairbanks Scales family; engineering and production continue in Ohio.
2018
Celebrates 100 years of heavy-duty weighing.
2025
Thurman moves its headquarters to Overland Park, Kansas.
Today
Diamondback and Falcon run alongside each other, both on the TS3300 indicator.

One job since 1918

A yellow rigid-frame off-road haul truck crossing a red-decked truck scale at an industrial plant, seen low from the approach slab, with the scale house, plant conveyor structures and a CAUTION sign reading Enter Truck Scale Slow, No Hard Braking behind it.
An off-road haul truck on the deck. A 20 ft × 80 ft scale in plant service — the impact loading and around-the-clock traffic these decks are built to take.

Thurman engineers scales around one job: keep the scale weighing accurately through impact, weather and around-the-clock loading. Mines, quarries, grain elevators, timber yards and steel mills set that duty cycle — and the duty cycle, not a catalog, shapes every deck and indicator we build.

A century of Ohio engineering

Close-up of a Diamondback weighbridge: two sealed stainless-steel junction enclosures bolted to the painted main beam, each carrying a seal-and-sign tag, with the pipe rub rail above.
Sealed and sign-ready. Load-cell junction enclosures on a Diamondback main beam, tagged for the weights-and-measures seal.

For more than a century, Thurman scales were engineered in Ohio — first in Columbus, then in Groveport. The double-ended shearbeam design behind the Diamondback family is self-restoring: the mount returns the deck to center after off-center loading and braking shock. It is the product of that century of building for off-road and ultra-heavy vehicle weighing.

In 2025, Thurman moved its headquarters to Overland Park, Kansas. The designs from that century, the product line and the independent distributor network came with it.

A Fairbanks Scales company

Thurman joined the Fairbanks Scales family in 1995. The brands stay distinct: Thurman products are sold, installed and serviced by Thurman's own independent distributor network. Thurman is headquartered today at 6800 W 64th St, Overland Park, Kansas.

Sold and serviced locally

Every Thurman scale is sold, installed, calibrated and serviced by independent, factory-trained distributors. Find yours, or request a quote and a Thurman sales engineer will make the match.

Two people outside the Souder Scale Service office, standing between two service vehicles lettered with the company name and phone number.
Souder Scale Service, Flora, Illinois. One of the independent distributors that sells, installs and calibrates Thurman scales.