Grasping full potential with smart sensors
Credit: BAUMER
Today, smart sensors are being increasingly used in food manufacturing industries as they reduce resource consumption in some applications by 30% or even up to 50%. CIP (Cleaning-in-place) is one area where smart sensors are helping operators to save time and energy, whilst also reducing water and detergent consumption, without jeopardising food and process safety.
In addition, for faster and more accurate measuring of heat exchangers, helping to optimise energy consumption and cleaning regimes, along with improved inventory management. The result is more accurate production planning based on real-time values helping to optimise safe batch separation, improving production quality whilst minimising material wastage by optimising the emptying of storage tanks and silos.
Inventory management is another area where smart sensors enable more accurate production planning based on real-time values, ensuring complete material consumption in emptying storage tanks and silos. Also, safer, more efficient batch separation which ultimately improves production quality.
Providing a bridge to the digital future
The connected Smart Sensors offered by Baumer are characterised by industry leading precision, miniaturised design and trend-setting functions. Flexible Dual Channel interfaces help operators to switch from analogue to digital output in parallel which means all the IO-Link benefits are accessible. However, sensors can be controlled via 4-20mA analogue output, especially in filling and packaging applications in food and beverage production. The sensors are designed to supply both fast real-time data for machine control as well as acyclic data for status analysis and process optimisation, paving the way to digital 4.0 communication.
The potential for Smart Sensors
The term smart sensor tends to be associated with IO-Link and secondary data for machine monitoring. However, for Baumer important features like these are just the beginning because with smart sensors integrating freely accessible additional digital services ensures maximum ease of operation. A good example of this is its OXM200, a smart profile sensor and one of the most compact and lightweight in its class. In most cases users continue to follow the complex, conventional procedures of collecting dimensions and coverage from data sheets for design-in via CAD, but this is time-consuming and prone to errors.
The Baumer solution provides a full 3D CAD sensor model with detection area and other relevant information as a digital twin which means designers can easily transfer the supplied data to their models and compare it with the machine design. This means users can see the sensors dimensions, detection range, blind and receiver range and so ensures they can identify the ideal position and parameterisation already on screen.
