Sensors that won’t quit – one Balluff customer’s experience

We often hear companies talk about how great their products are or how well they hold up under adverse conditions, but many of us wonder just how much of that is hype.  While I cannot vouch for all the claims out there, I can relate to you (the reader) and share my Balluff prox story and how I’ve seen them survive.

Example of proximity sensor face damage - not actual picture of sensor from story.

I was working in the industrial maintenance field when I came across the prox in this tale.  The prox was being used to sense motion of sanding tape in a polishing machine.  This system was designed to polish the part in two directions and the purpose of the prox was to ensure that a proper amount of sandpaper had advanced with each direction change. The sandpaper was on rolls, which threaded through some rollers, including a plastic one that had a piece of metal embedded inside.  The prox was set up to monitor this plastic roller and register when the metal piece rotated by and thereby indicating to the system that the sandpaper had advanced.  If this prox did not change states, the system would fault out and turn on an error/alarm light.  To reset the alarm the operator had to hit a reset button and then start the system again.

Linear Sensor Basics: Absolute vs. Incremental

When it comes time to choose a linear position sensor, there’s a dizzying array of options and terminology to wade through.  In this series of articles, we’re going “back to basics” to try to shed some light on the sometimes confusing world of linear sensing options, technologies, and terminology.

 First up, we’re going to take a look the two basic linear sensor measurement types: absolute measurement and incremental measurement.

Full Color Sensing

Written by: Andrew Bollinger

Interested in learning how the software behind a color sensor works?  This demonstration shows how easy it is to analyze the color values and differences in eight paint samples. 

Industrial Network Basics: Simplifying I/O Terminology

There are many terms used for I/O technology in industrial automation: Remote I/O, Distributed I/O,  Modular I/O, Expandable I/O, Block I/O, Conventional I/O and the list can go on.  What do they all mean?  Can they be used interchangeably?  What is the difference?

Lets be honest… this is a muddled topic and many people use different things interchangeably.  I’ve done a bit of research and reading of automation magazines, forums and websites and have tried to piece it together.

EUROMAP Association Defines Ethernet Best Practices

EUROMAP is an association of plastics and rubber machinery manufacturers based in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.  This group has produced a comprehensive set of Technical Recommendations for its members to follow.

The EUROMAP technical committee has recommended implementation of realtime Ethernet communications for peripheral devices.  Document 75-2, for example, defines network architecture and specifications for line topology (daisy chain), ring topology, and star topology.

If you are thinking about network topology and communication protocols for your project, the EUROMAP Technical Recommendations can provide valuable examples of best practices as determined by a group of leading-edge industrial machinery companies.