Sensors

The experts in sensors, Leuze electronic, has announced it has joined up with Microsoft Azure Certified for Internet of Things (IoT), to ensure that customers get IoT solutions up and running quickly with hardware and software that has been pre-tested and verified to work with Microsoft Azure IoT services.

The SX9310 SAR proximity sensor from Semtech is in stock at Mouser Electronics. The SX9310 is a smart sensing solution that enables smartphone and tablet manufacturers to help protect users from potentially harmful radio frequency (RF) exposure. The SAR proximity sensorregulates RF exposure to reduce specific absorption rate (SAR) — the measure of RF power that is radiated into the human body when in close proximity to a connected device.

The BE-A range of flow sensors from Panasonic Electric Works Europe are now available from distributor Conrad Business Supplies. The new sensors have been specially developed for laboratory automation. During the automatic dosing process of liquids, the highly reliable sensors detect air bubbles or liquid.

Switchgears and sensors are abrasive, like cement dust and sand; they are corrosive, like fertilisers; or they are explosive, like all organic dusts. The characteristics of dusts often make high demands on the design of any switchgear they come into contact with, and as if this were not enough, the plants where these substances are handled are often located outdoors, where damp and extreme temperatures pose additional challenges to electric components.

To provide users with a versatile and economical user-configurable motion control sensor, SICK has launched the DUS60 incremental encoder and DUV60 measuring wheel encoder with DIP switch programmability. The shaft-mounted SICK DUS60 rotary incremental encoder can be installed and commissioned quickly for a wide-variety of conveying and rotation monitoring applications in automated processing and production. 

The MP600 series of mechanical sensors from Microprecision is designed to detect two positions within one single product. The distance between the two positions can be customised to the user’s application between 0.3mm and 1.5mm. The fixed NC and NO contacts activate with no measurable hysteresis.

A new investment has been completed by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers through its £2m Stephenson Fund, into Bristol-based company Inductosense. Inductosense, a spin-out of Bristol University, is developing novel ultrasonic sensors for monitoring corrosion, cracks or defects. The technology is known as the WAND - Wireless And Non-Destructive system and it works by bringing a measurement probe near to a compact, battery-free sensor installed on a structure.

  Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories have announced the development of sensor data analysis technology that can aggregate vibration data with sensors attached to the surface of a bridge, and then estimate the degree of the bridge's internal damage through the application of 'FUJITSU Human Centric AI Zinrai technology', Fujitsu's approach to artificial intelligence.

The range of IO-Link compatible hardware and ancillaries at RS Components (RS) has been expanded, an initiative which has quadrupled its stock of the devices over the past six months. IO-Link, the first standardised IO technology (to IEC 61131-9) for communication with sensors and actuators, will play an important part in the growing creation and adoption of fully connected solutions based around Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) concepts.

A range of British designed and manufactured electric forklift trucks from Nexen Lift Trucks have specified the NRH272 rotary position sensors from Curtiss-Wright Industrial division’s brand family of Penny & Giles. To maximise storage space within a building footprint, aisle width in warehouses is being reduced and many lift truck manufacturers are having to adopt the latest technologies to ensure material handling vehicles can operate safely and effectively within these new narrow aisle environments.