ELECTRONICS SENSORS
Position sensors power smart manufacturing
Richard Mount, director of sales at ASIC design and supply company Swindon Silicon Systems explores the role of position sensors within smart manufacturing, and how ASICs can drive the technology further forwards
O
ngoing supply chain issues, skill gaps and ever-changing customer demands mean that now – more than ever – manufacturers are increasingly adopting ‘smart’ manufacturing mindsets to keep up. The concept of smart manufacturing has been around for some time. Essentially, its and adaptable to changing market needs. This is all achieved while maintaining high production quality, worker safety and equipment uptime.
By making a manufacturing plant or process smarter, customer expectations are also met with greater swiftness. This could include the creation of more tailored, bespoke products highly competitive sectors, having a smarter, more agile mindset could be the make-or- break difference between staying ahead or falling behind the curve.
But when it comes to executing smart methodologies at the production level, what technologies are available?
Detecting distance
Position sensing is a crucial element of many smarter manufacturing processes, particularly with enabling factory automation. Tasks like pick-and-place or product assembly require the equipment to very accurately know its position in order to move precisely – information that can be obtained using position sensors.
Depending on the type, these sensors may determine an object’s position either directly measuring its relative displacement. One common example is the inductive position sensor. Relying on principles of electromagnetic induction, these position sensors allow for non-contact detection of metallic objects. Conductive targets cause detected by the sensing element. Because only metallic objects will affect the magnetic
to detect non-metals like plastic.
But the upside of this is that the sensor is less likely to be affected by dust or dirt build-up This makes them ideal for operation within dirtier industrial environments.
Another type is the optical position encoder. These typically consist of an LED and photodetector, with either an optical disc or scale depending on whether the encoder is measuring linear or rotary displacement. Optical encoders can perform to high resolutions, making them ideal for applications where high precision matters, such as a CNC machine.
When photons of light are captured by the photodetector, a weak electrical using a signal-conditioning circuit before being digitised with an analogue-to-digital a CPU or microcontroller, which is able to calculate object position based on the signal. The processing unit is capable of recognising events such as reference marks being passed and can immediately take remedial action within a closed-loop system.
Accurate sensing
conditioning, and digitising are up to scratch.
24 SEPTEMBER 2023 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS
Sensor failure or inaccuracies could lead to the incorrect manufacture of products, leading to a drop in productivity and wasted materials and time.
may be comprised of off-the-shelf discrete for low production volumes, this may be an adequate solution. But for a sensor solution that outstrips its competition, it’s preferable to designed and manufactured with its exact application in mind. This bespoke approach to role, often with reduced power consumption its improved performance.
Manufacturers are increasingly looking for tiniest fraction of a millimetre could mean the difference between success and failure. By to optimise sensor solutions right from chip level for a superior performance, no matter the process.
Swindon Silicon Systems
www.swindonsilicon.com
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