Pepperl+Fuchs Blog

Storage tanks and silos in many different industries require overfill prevention and continuous level measurement to prevent equipment damage and downtime. This means a broad range of materials, such as chemicals, sludge, and gravel, must be reliably detected to maintain optimal process flows. Ultrasonic sensors from Pepperl+Fuchs are designed to detect and measure the fill level of liquids and solids, no matter their storage location. The 18GMA series, series 70, and F260 ultrasonic sensors are especially geared toward this purpose.

Discovery Robotics has a corporate mission “to increase human productivity, safety, and quality of life by creating robotic solutions that deliver value to [their] customers.” The Pittsburgh, PA-based robotics manufacturer created the FX250, an autonomous commercial floor cleaning robot, to accomplish this mission in the janitorial services industry.

Ultrasonic double sheet sensors help ensure continuous, error-free processes in a range of industrial applications. They are used to prevent more than one layer of material from being fed into a machine. The same technology behind double sheet detection can also be applied to label detection applications.

Hygienic Ultrasonic Sensors for the Food Industry

The food and beverage industry imposes extremely strict regulations on the design of machines and their components. According to EHEDG hygienic design principles, machines and their components must be:

In a typical day, a garbage truck visits over 800 homes and collects up to 14 tons of waste. These trucks usually operate up to 16 hours a day for six days a week and ultrasonic sensors are installed to enhance waste collection processes. Using high-frequency sound pulses, the sensors effectively detect fill level, distance, position, and presence while being unhindered by smoke, dust, light, and color. 

Are unexpected issues often determining your schedule? Have you recently had to push back a project because of recurring problems? Having to respond to unplanned issues may seem like an inevitable cost of doing business, but it is becoming harder and harder to settle for a reactive approach to plant management and remain competitive at the same time.

Large paper, plastic, textile, and sheet-metal rolls typically consist of multiple segments that are connected or spliced together. When the roll is unspooled and transformed into the finished product, these splices must be identified and removed. Depending on the spooled material’s properties, different sensors are required to detect the splice and stop the feed.

The speed of sound depends on ambient temperature. As temperature rises, the speed of sound increases. As it gets colder, the speed of sound decreases. For ultrasonic sensors, this variance can affect accuracy, since a faster or slower echo return will make a stationary target appear closer or farther away.

Our UC-F77 ultrasonic sensor is easy to set up and program using PACTware Connection Wizard software. In the video below, I'll show you how to configure the sensor and also demonstrate some of its unique features. One of my favorite new features is that it solves a common problem for ultrasonic sensors: It allows suppression of echoes from false targets.

Ultrasonic sensors are non-contact devices used for object detection or level measurement. They operate on the principle of sound traveling through a medium, where a transducer emits a sound wave at a specific frequency. Based on the time it takes the reflected sound pulse to reach the transducer, the sensor’s internal logic determines if the object is within the nominal sensing range and generates an output signal.