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Category: Sensors

Input devices

Hall Effect Sensors vs. Proxes

By Frank Posted on February 26, 2012 Posted in Proximity Switches, Sensing, Sensors, Website Tagged with hall effect, proxes, search engine optimization, sensors

While doing some of the minor website maintenance tasks that you sometimes have to do when blogging, I came across a site called Alexa. I always wondered about search engine optimization (SEO) and how it works… this gave me a …

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Intrinsic Safety

By Frank Posted on February 5, 2012 Posted in Hardware, Safety, Sensors Tagged with barriers, intrinsically safe, safety

When using control devices in hazardous areas such as explosive or flammable atmospheres special care must be taken to reduce or eliminate the possibility of heat or an electrical arc or spark causing damage to personnel or equipment. Because of …

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Photoeyes

By Frank Posted on August 21, 2011 Posted in Photoeyes, Sensors Tagged with photoeyes

Some basic info on photoeyes from the Primer: Photoelectric sensors or Photoeyes transmit and receive a light signal. The sensor changes state when the light changes from being received to not being received or vice-versa. There are two conditions for …

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LVDTs

By Frank Posted on August 14, 2011 Posted in gauging, LVDTs Tagged with gauging, LVDT

One of the first applications I wrote about on this blog back in January 2011 was a Rocker Arm Cover gauge that used a number of LVDTs to calculate a plane and its intercept points. In that blog I concentrated …

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ID Systems

By Frank Posted on August 7, 2011 Posted in Conveyors, ID Systems, Packaging Tagged with RFID

Early in my career I became in involved in material handling systems more often than any other kind of project. For one thing, they were generally pretty simple from a controls perspective, just turning conveyor motors on and off, moving …

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Filter Tester

By Frank Posted on May 29, 2011 Posted in Applications, gauging, Integration, Packaging, Test Equipment, vision Tagged with Machine Vision, systems integration, vibratory bowls

In another post I described an air filter tester built with NAS in the late 1990s. These testers were for automotive filters and generally were built around a single automation concept; a Cosmo leak tester or vision system for instance. …

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Precision Measurement Application

By Frank Posted on May 22, 2011 Posted in Applications, gauging, Laser, Sensors, Test Equipment Tagged with lasers, photoeyes, sensors

This station was used to measure a small crystal used in the manufacture of medical CT scanners. A Keyence laser scanner was used to measure the crystal in three different axes, providing both dimensional and “squareness” information to an operator. …

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Leak Tester

By Frank Posted on April 10, 2011 Posted in gauging, Test Equipment, vision Tagged with aluminum extrusion, gauging, Machine Vision, pressure testing

This is another application done with NAS from about 1998. We did a lot of vision, gauging and leak testing applications for Tennex, a Japanese cooperative venture in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This company has since been bought by Mahle, a German …

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Non-Industrial Industrial Applications

By Frank Posted on March 20, 2011 Posted in Conveyors, vision Tagged with material handling, USDA

I was browsing through some old pictures of systems trying to get some inspiration for today’s post and ran across some pictures of the cotton classing system we helped put into the USDA facility in Memphis. This was a cooperative …

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Choosing the Right Sensor

By Frank Posted on March 2, 2011 Posted in Proximity Switches, Sensing, Sensors, Vendors and Manufacturers Tagged with hall effect, photoeyes, proxes, sensors

With all of the different types of sensors available and so many manufacturers and vendors competing for your business sometimes it can be difficult or confusing to choose the correct sensor for an application. In many cases such as detecting …

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