FEATURE SENSORS & SENSING SYSTEMS
Mini-Sensors: Five reasons to get with the smart money
Even the smallest of sensors are an integral part of
the Industry 4.0 digital revolution, as Charlie Walker, smart sensor specialist at SICK UK, explains
I
magine the latest sensors displayed on a stand at a manufacturer’s trade show. Notice
how devices of all kinds have shrunk – and by not just a little. More and more astounding performance is being concentrated in sensors no bigger than a few cubes of sugar. Even the tiniest sensors have become ‘things’
in the Industrial Internet of Things. In the Industry 4.0 digital revolution, they have become smart enough to think and act for themselves. But why should design engineers and machine builders convert to making their sensor inventories smaller and smarter?
1. SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL Factory floor space costs money, and machine designers are constantly looking for ways to save valuable square footage. Installed in the tightest machine spaces, the new W4F smart photoelectric sensors from SICK perform robustly at detection ranges you might expect only from much larger devices. All with the same, rugged, 16mm x 40mm x 12mm housing, they are workhorses for every common sensing challenge, and multiply the options for machine integration. Enabled via IO-Link, smart sensors
communicate bi-directionally with other devices at the field level, or with a cloud- based application, and take processing load away from the control system.
2. EASY CONFIGURATION However tight the mounting space, smart sensors can be set up in no time. Our trademark BluePilot pinpoint alignment on the W4F is a push-turn mechanism with an on-sensor LED guide. If they are connected to an IO-Link Master, replacing these smart sensors is ‘plug and play’ because they can be configured instantly using pre-set parameters saved in the port connector.
3. NO COMPROMISE ON VERSATILE PERFORMANCE Even in the most miniaturised packages, today’s smart sensors offer impressive performance. According to feedback from our customers, the SICK W4F offers the best-ever ambient light and sunlight suppression, for example. Whether you need to detect jet black, high-gloss, highly reflective, perforated, transparent, wire-thin or flat products, you can choose a sensor that is up to the task. Smart sensors reduce the raw data
processing burden on machine controllers, which can otherwise cause bottlenecks and
14 MAY 2021 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS / DESIGNSOLUTIONS
slow data transmission through a typical centralised control hierarchy. Using integrated logic functions in the sensor, you can create decentralised ‘Smart Tasks’; the SICK W4F background suppression sensor, for instance, can output distance measurement for this purpose.
4. DIAGNOSTIC INSIGHTS Instead of relying on a false economy of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, smart sensors become your fully- connected ‘eyes and ears’ in the heart of the machine, providing diagnostic insights not previously available. Sensor self-monitoring such as the SICK W4F’s ‘current receiver level’ read- out, for example, allows detection performance to be monitored in real time, so if there is dirt on the lens, this can be corrected before causing unplanned downtime. The control system can respond if the sensor’s process parameters such as temperature or degree of contamination deviate beyond pre-set limits. With rapid identification of the cause of failure, e.g. at critical temperatures, the W4F can automatically initiate maintenance, thus preventing failures. Faults can be displayed either on the sensor itself or via an HMI, so they can be detected quickly and machine downtime is minimised.
5. MAKE YOUR MACHINE OEE-READY Enabled by the improved data transparency that smart sensors provide, machines can continuously monitor their processes. Harvesting
Figure 1
digital data from sensors right from the heart of a machine provides opportunities for machine designers to calculate and display Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) in real time. Outputs such as the
number of rejects, parts produced and machine availability can be used to calculate a powerful real-time OEE value (see Figure 1, below). You could even display the real-time OEE
performance with a ‘traffic light’-style SICK Smart Light Tower on the machine. If it’s showing green, your process is operating smoothly; red and your OEE has degraded to a point where immediate action is necessary. In the post-pandemic economic recovery, it
could still be tempting for machine designers and operators to adopt a ‘make do and mend’ procurement policy. But, the design life of a sensor is at least 10 years – that’s a long time to wait for the next technology developments. Building smart sensors into your machines
today will prepare your users for the years to come. With smart functions, edge integration and diagnostic insights, they can improve efficiency and profitability that more than justify the return on investment.
SICK
www.sick.co.uk
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