The IP67, Ecolab-certified, 30 x 20 x 10mm, C23 photoelectric sensor family from Contrinex are ideal for conveyor and packaging applications – Find out more at www.tiny.cc/CTX_C23Conveyor
An example application for the C23 is the food processing industry, where ‘shingling’, or overlapped layering, is a common technique for optimizing space during secondary packaging operations. As shown in the video, (www.tiny.cc/CTX_C23Conveyor) biscuits are sealed in gusseted bags with a triangular profile, and packed in alternating, overlapping layers into a preformed cardboard box. Once each box is full, it passes to a case-sealing station prior to palletisation and dispatch.
From time to time, an incorrectly formed layer occurs, where a bag might be damaged or misaligned. The C23 photoelectric sensor with Background Suppression is used to provide non-contact sensing of the height of the top layer of bags, rejecting any over-filled cartons.
These sensors are well suited to both the task and the environment, because their ‘pinpoint’ red LED has a 10mm-diameter light spot at the maximum 300mm sensing range, which ensures highly reliable detection of objects of almost any colour against light or dark backgrounds.
The installation uses a sensor mounted above the conveyor, immediately after the packing station. As each carton passes below on its way to the sealing station, the sensor detects the top surface of the packed bags. If the height of the top layer is over a preset limit, the sensor triggers a reject mechanism that diverts the carton to a holding area for investigation.
Customer benefits:
- Reliable, repeatable in-line quality checks on a non-contact basis
- Improved quality arising from real-time detection of incorrectly packed cartons
- Increased productivity as the sensor’s stability alarm flags preventative-maintenance needs
- Single sensor accommodates a range of carton sizes without repositioning
- Remote adjustment via IO-Link reduces changeover time between products
Product advantages:
- Maximum sensing range of 300mm with pinpoint red LED
- Best-in-class background-suppression black/white behaviour
- IO-Link connectivity available at no extra cost on PNP versions
- Dual output with stability alarm
The C23 sensor family is available with five sensing technologies; industry-standard PNP or NPN, 3‑wire or 4-wire outputs; a choice of PVC-sheathed cable or an integrated M8 connector; and a wide choice of low-cost mounting and protection brackets.
The C23 photoelectric sensor family offers a ‘stability alarm’ feature, where the sensor sets a flag after seeing 20 consecutive poor detections, and turns it off after 20 consecutive good detections. This provides a powerful preventative maintenance warning, because the warning is triggered whilst the sensor and machine continue to work perfectly. The status of this flag can be found within the large set of features available for free over the IO-Link interface, or is available as a switched 4th wire, providing preventative maintenance functionality in a low cost and simple to implement manner.
A summary of the IO-Link features which are consistently offered across Contrinex’s sensors is shown in the below slide:
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