Product category:
Temperature sensors
News Release from: Micro-Epsilon UK | Subject: P600 series
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 18 March 2005
Displacement sensor aids fork lift truck
safety
Still-Wagner, a German manufacturer of innovative fork lift trucks, is using a special Micro-Epsilon draw-wire displacement sensor to measure the lift height on its fork lift trucks.
For manufacturing and warehousing companies, logistics is now a key business driver Materials have to be shipped and transferred along supply chains at high speed in order to meet customer demand
As a result, manufacturers and logistics service providers are constantly looking for ways of reducing material transfer times and to optimise the flow of goods through the factory, warehouse and supply chain.
Some companies have now optimised their logistics and material flows using draw-wire displacement sensors on fork lift trucks, for example.
When raising and lowering loads by fork lift truck, safety margins normally have to be adhered to, so that when rounding a corner, braking or accelerating for example, the truck is not placed in a dangerous, tilted position.
If the lift height of the load can be measured accurately, the optimum safe driving speed can then be determined.
Still-Wagner, a manufacturer of innovative fork lift trucks based in Reutlingen, Germany, is using a special Micro-Epsilon draw-wire displacement sensor, to measure the lift height on its fork lift trucks.
The system, which uses a custom-designed Micro-Epsilon P600 series sensor, is completely failsafe so that truck operators cannot deliberately or accidentally cause critical driving conditions.
The system optimises the speed of the truck and improves the safety by automatically bringing the load to the correct lift height, to speed up the movement of materials to the appropriate shelf height in the warehouse.
The P600 sensor is a special, custom designed draw-wire sensor.
It has a much slimmer construction (width of 87mm) than the company's standard P60 draw-wire sensor so that it could be fitted into a very tight installation space on Still-Wagner's trucks.
Thomas Birchinger, Product Manager Draw-Wire Sensors at Micro-Epsilon explained: "If the truck operator has to raise the forks 15m to reach the racking where the goods are stored, the temptation for the driver may then be to accelerate away quickly with the forks still high, which can be dangerous".
"Our P600 sensor simultaneously measures absolute precision using a potentiometer and an encoder reading".
"If there is a difference between the two output signals, the truck is then automatically placed in a safe mode".
The P600 is designed to operate redundantly.
Two electrically independent signals - a potentiometer output and an encoder output - ensure that a high level of safety is achieved.
The high accuracy sensor has a potentiometer output that achieves a repetitive accuracy of better than 0.05% and a linearity of better than +/-0.1%.
The encoder output has a resolution of better than 0.05% and a linearity of better than +/-0.05%.
The operating temperature range for the P600 is from 0 to 50C, but there is also a special cold store version for temperatures down to -20C.
The P600 also has a sensing range of up to 15m, ten times further than the standard P60 sensor.
The quality, high reliability and measurement accuracy of Micro-Epsilon's draw-wire sensor have resulted in thousands of units being sold to Still-Wagner which has since gained an edge over its competitors in the global fork lift truck market.
Birchinger concluded: "Although the P600 sensor was developed specifically for Still-Wagner's forklift trucks, our range of draw wire sensors are being used in all kinds of lifting applications, including scissor lifts, lifting gear, lifting platforms for car and train maintenance, winches and cranes".
"We have also sold smaller low cost versions with plastic housings to medical device manufacturers, for use in adjustable beds, dentist chairs, operating tables and topography systems".
"General machinery is also a large market for us". Request a free brochure from Micro-Epsilon UK ...
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