A digital scale includes a lift apparatus configured to lift a top tray of the scale off weight sensors of the scale in order to prevent any potential damage and/or malfunction of the weight sensors due to excessive weight on the tray and/or due to a sudden drop of a heavy item onto the top tray. During a transaction at a terminal, an expected weight of a scanned item and/or a current weight of existing items on the tray is used to determine whether the tray is to be lifted off the sensors by the lift apparatus before the item is placed on the tray. Once the tray is lifted off the sensors and the scanned item is placed onto the top tray, the lift apparatus may slowly lower the tray back onto the weight sensors to enable a weight measurement of the item to be recorded.