Position switches use wireless data transmission

At Drives and Controls 2006 Steute showed a range of products which underline the company's three main areas of technical expertise: industrial control, explosion protection and medical foot controls.

At Drives and Controls 2006 Steute showed for the first time in the UK a comprehensive range of products which underline the company's three main areas of technical expertise: industrial control, explosion protection and medical foot controls.

One of the main areas of focus for Steute at Drives and Controls 2006 is to show the new generation of industrial wireless position switches.

In 2004, for the first time ever, Steute introduced wireless position switches which transmit their signals by means of low-energy EnOcean radio technology.

The low quantity of energy necessary for the transmission is automatically generated by the switchgear, e.g by means of a high-input battery or a miniaturized solar module.

At the Hanover Fair in 2005 Steute presented a new generation of wireless position switches, which differ from the conventional switchgear through another innovative solution: Steute has developed a new type of energy generator, generating electrical energy from the movement of the plunger.

So the switches produce the energy they require by themselves and work totally self-sufficiently: without cables, without batteries and without light.

The principle according to which the new EF 95 works is actually so obvious that it seems strange that nobody has hit upon the idea before now.

After all, position switches are always actuated by moving the plunger.

This movement contains kinetic energy, which can be converted into electrical energy by means of an electro-dynamic generator.

And that is precisely what the EF 95 does: the engineers have succeeded in miniaturizing an energy generator in such a way that it has now got the same dimensions as a conventional switch insert.

Thus for the first time a position switch is available that generates the energy for data transmission from the movement of the plunger.

At the same time, energy storage is not necessary, because energy is only needed when the plunger is operated.

An essential condition for this kind of energetic autarky is application of the innovative EnOcean radio technology, working with an extremely low energy requirement: the signal intensity is approx.

100 times lower than the radio signal of a mobile phone.

Therefore only very little transmitting energy is needed.

Nevertheless, the range of the signal is wider than that of alternative wireless technologies in industrial automation.

The energy generator once again opens up new fields of application for wireless switchgear.

This does not only apply to position switches, for the generator can be integrated into a compact standard switch enclosure and thus also be utilized in different types of switchgear.

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