Innovative object detection in confined spaces

Fiber optic sen­sors are always the method of choice when lit­tle space is avail­able. For such appli­ca­tions ifm is now launch­ing the new fiber optic sen­sors of the OCF series. These can be set up intu­itive­ly, have numer­ous smart func­tions thanks to IO-Link and offer six pow­er­ful oper­at­ing modes which the fiber optic ampli­fi­er selects auto­mat­i­cal­ly as required.

These sen­sors work on the same prin­ci­ple as con­ven­tion­al opto­elec­tron­ic sen­sors. Here, how­ev­er, optics and eval­u­a­tion elec­tron­ics are spa­tial­ly sep­a­rat­ed from each oth­er, which offers an impor­tant advan­tage for many appli­ca­tions: The fiber optics can be posi­tioned pre­cise­ly under very con­fined con­di­tions and detect even very small parts there. The remote fiber optic sen­sor is then locat­ed in a suit­able place — for exam­ple, mount­ed on the machine or even in a con­trol cabinet.

The new fiber optic sen­sors make such appli­ca­tions par­tic­u­lar­ly easy. The slim hous­ings are suit­able for mount­ing on DIN rails. There, they can be sim­ply snapped on with a flick of the wrist. The fiber optic cables are also con­nect­ed with­out tools thanks to the so-called fiber­lock­ing. Since the OCF com­plies with the high IP65 pro­tec­tion class, it can also be mount­ed in the field, for exam­ple direct­ly on the machine. In order to make the sub­se­quent com­mis­sion­ing sim­ple and intu­itive, ifm placed great empha­sis on usabil­i­ty dur­ing the devel­op­ment. The fibre optic sen­sor has three but­tons for oper­a­tion. The plain text dis­play of the inte­grat­ed OLED dis­play facil­i­tates the 2‑point teach-in. The find-me func­tion, in which the con­nect­ed fiber flash­es, also sim­pli­fies localization.

The OCF han­dles six dif­fer­ent oper­at­ing modes, auto­mat­i­cal­ly select­ing the cor­rect mode as need­ed. The out­put sig­nal can be sent to a high­er-lev­el con­troller via IO-Link as well as via a fast dig­i­tal out­put. The IO-Link inter­face is also used to diag­nose the fiber optic sen­sor. For exam­ple, the degree of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of the fiber can be mon­i­tored; this clean-me func­tion enables pre­dic­tive main­te­nance in the appli­ca­tion. Togeth­er with the new fiber optic sen­sors, ifm also offers a com­pre­hen­sive range of match­ing fiber optic cables in a wide vari­ety of designs so that the right con­fig­u­ra­tion can be select­ed for every application.