LED Light Sources Ease Part Inspection

MG-Wave LED lighting provides longer stable images than other form of lighting, with no deterioration caused by repeatedly switching the light on and off. The Moritex MLNL series of LED line illuminators have been designed for high-performance linear lighting and single-dimensional linear CCD camera lighting. Based upon Moritex’ MG-Wave constant current technology, the MLNL series of LEDs provides even illumination, easing the inspection of glass substrates for scratches and other imperfections, as well as the inspection of boards and connector pins and lighting for single-dimensional linear CCD cameras.

MG-Wave LED lighting provides longer stable images than other form of lighting. Unlike other forms of lighting there is no deterioration caused by repeatedly switching the light on and off. Operating across a narrow-bandwidth MG-Wave makes it easy to acquire the contrast critical for image processing. Incorporating small light source elements enables MG-Wave to deliver lighting dimensions optimised to a given application. The MG-Wave constant current detection system reads the signal to control the rated current, which is adjusted to the number of LEDs in every lighting module.

The MG-Wave range also includes high powered spot, direct ring, low angle ring, shadowless, edge backlit, array backlit, coaxial, bar, linear, oblique and parallel lighting LED’s as well as power sources and a wide variety of LED lighting accessories.

Moritex LEDs are available in six colours and grouped into over 100 luminance levels. The LEDs that go into Moritex units are always from the same group, ensuring even light output even in larger units. Before leaving the factory all MG Wave LED units are tuned to the same standard performance, ensuring consistency between units.

Touch Screen PC Braves The Elements

The VTPC104ECHB has five IP68-rated gasket-sealed input/output connections including one power, one RS232, one LAN, one USB and another connection of the user’s choice. VarTech’s 10.4in VTPC104ECHB touch screen PC is ideal for harsh outdoor applications, where it has to cope with weather and high ambient lighting. This NEMA 4X (IP66), fully enclosed 1.0GHz fanless HMI computer system is equipped with a true 800 nits (cd/m2) LCD with solid state LED backlighting.

It has a native XGA resolution and 178 degree viewing angles. The VTPC104ECHB handles temperatures from -20 to +55C with an optional -40 to 60C range. The VTPC104ECHB offers an Armor Touch touch screen. A durable and flexible glass/polymer laminate was combined with conventional resistive technology to provide a sensor that overcomes the deficiencies of other touch sensors.

The Armor Touch is then optically bonded to the front of the LCD with anti-reflective field and UV protection. The core computer of the VTPC104ECHB is a single board system with a fanless Intel Celeron M 1.0GHz CPU, 1Gbyte DDR266 SO-DIMM of memory, a solid state 8Gbyte hard drive that can be upgraded to 120Gbyte, and the Windows XP Pro operating system. The VTPC104ECHB has five IP68-rated gasket-sealed input/output connections including one power, one RS232, one LAN, one USB and another connection of the user’s choice.

The VTPC104ECHB is housed in a 316 stainless steel, gasket-sealed, VESA-mountable, NEMA 4X enclosure with MIL-STD-810F environmental protection. It has EMI/EMC protection in compliance with FCC Class B with MIL-STD-461E versions available. The VTPC104ECHB offers optional shock and vibration military compliances as well as other military and marine grade protection ratings.

Rotary Sensors Remember Seat Settings

Each device in the MT series can store the absolute angular or linear position of the seat thanks to resistive technology guaranteed by over 40 years of experience in the field. In automotive seating applications the seat may be linearly movable, either manually or automatically via electromechanical means, on an associated track assembly.

There are a number of applications that require precise information on the position of a seat, such as controlling the deployment or the force of an airbag, or feeding back the motor position of the seat in connection with a seat position memory feature etc. Piher’s MT rotary series have been designed for these applications and feature a novel clutch function.

Different models are available depending on the vehicle, and the through-hole mounting sensor can easily be tailored to customer specifications. Versions are available off-the-shelf with three to 150 turns for applications such as recliner position sensing, head restraint position sensing, lumbar position sensing and seat linear memory position sensing.

Each device in the MT series can store the absolute angular or linear position of the seat thanks to resistive technology guaranteed by over 40 years of experience in the field. This memory function does not require external electronics and prevents system malfunctions due to power loss.

Banner Engineering MINI-BEAM Photoelectric Sensors

SM2A312D Self-Contained AC-Operated Diffuse Mode Sensors

Banner Engineering MINI-BEAM Photoelectric Sensors

• Compact, modulated, self-contained diffuse proximity mode sensors for 24-240V ac operation
• 2-wire hookup for convenient installation
• Range to 380 mm (15 in) (referenced to 90% reflectance white test card)
• Switch-selectable for light operate or dark operate
• SPST SCR solid-state output switches up to 300mA; low leakage current and saturation voltage
• Rugged, epoxy-encapsulated construction: meets NEMA standards 1, 2, 3, 3S, 4, 4X, 12 and 13; IEC IP67
• Physically and electrically interchangeable with 18 mm barrel-type photoelectrics

Proper operation of the SM2A312D Banner Sensor requires that it be mounted securely and aligned properly. Excessive movement or vibration can result in intermittent or false operation caused by loss of alignment. For best results, final-mount the SM2A312D in an 18mm-hole by its threaded barrel or use a mounting bracket.

1. Begin with the sensor at the desired distance from the object to be sensed, and at the approximate position where it will be mounted. The background should be as far behind the object as possible (at least three times the distance of the sensor from the object), and as dark a color as possible compared to the object. Ideally, the object should present its largest reflective surface to the sensor.
2. Switch the sensor to light-operate mode. With the object in the sensing position, apply power to the sensor, and advance the 15-turn GAIN control to maximum (clockwise end of rotation). The GAIN control is clutched at both ends to avoid damage, and will “free-wheel” when either endpoint is reached. If the sensor is “seeing” its reflected light, the alignment LED should be “on”. Move the sensor up-down-right-left (include angular rotation) to find the center of movement zone within which the LED remains lit. Reducing the GAIN setting (if necessary) will reduce the size of the movement zone and make more precise alignment possible.
3. Repeat the alignment motions after each GAIN reduction. When you are satisfied that you have obtained optimum alignment, mount the sensor solidly in that position. Increase the GAIN to maximum. Test the system by removing the object from the sensing position. The receiver LED indicator should go “off”. If the LED indicator does not go “off”, the sensor is reacting to light reflected from a background surface. Reduce the GAIN setting until the alignment indicator goes “off”, plus two additional full turns. Again place the object in the sensing position. If the alignment indicator does not come “on”, the sensor is receiving as much or more light energy from the background as from the object. Consider the following alternatives:
   • move the sensor closer to the object and reduce the sensitivity (GAIN);
   • reduce background reflectivity by painting the background with flat-black paint, or by scuffing the background or cutting a hole through it;
   • tilt the sensor or the background so that the sensing beam is not perpendicular to the background.

Opportunities And Challenges For Valve Supplies

The worldwide control valve market reached US $4.8 billion in 2007 and is predicted to exceed $6.4 billion in 2012. The worldwide control valve market enjoyed yet another year of historic double-digit growth between 2006 and 2007. Strong revenue growth is expected to continue at a compounded annual growth rate of 6% over the next five years.

The market reached US $4.8 billion in 2007 and is forecasted to exceed $6.4 billion in 2012, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study. Does 2007 represent the peak year for growth in the market? It was too early to tell halfway through the year, but indications show that growth could once again approach historic levels in 2008, with many of the leading control valve suppliers experiencing strong backlog with no slowdown in sight. “Control valve suppliers continued to post strong revenue growth in the first quarter of 2008″.

“Though the North American and European markets have slowed somewhat, suppliers are relatively immune, thanks to increased demand in developing markets, such as China, India and the Middle East, which provided strong project activity, particularly in the oil and gas sector”, according to Senior Analyst David Clayton, the principal author of ARC’s “Control valve worldwide outlook”. In many ways, control valve suppliers are faced with the same opportunities and challenges as they were at this time last year.

While the extremely robust growth occurring in developing markets provides control valve suppliers a tremendous opportunity to grow their business, establishing a global supply and logistics system and designing new products for the changing needs of the global control valve market, are key challenges control valve suppliers must overcome.

The ability to guarantee delivery times is more difficult now than ever before as demand for control valves continues to increase from developing markets around the globe, and many control valve suppliers face manufacturing constraints. To ensure strong global delivery and service capabilities, control valve suppliers are finding it necessary to invest heavily in manufacturing and project engineering capabilities throughout the globe, with a particular focus in developing markets.

On the supply-side of the equation, long-term agreements with foundries in North America, Europe, and Asia remain critical to protect needed capacity and lead times. Those suppliers who did not establish long-term agreements with foundries during the lean years were not prepared for the strong surge in demand and are finding it difficult to secure the valve castings necessary to meet demand. Taking full advantage of the robust project activity in developing markets requires significant product investment as well.

Many control valve suppliers have been forced to expand their control valve line sises and high pressure class ratings to compete in these markets. Many of the new projects in the Middle East require extremely large valves capable of withstanding extreme temperatures while providing tight shutoff capabilities. High pressure applications in deep offshore oil wells, that often exceed 30,000 feet, require high thrusts/torque capabilities from control valves as well. Remaining competitive in developed markets requires a different set of product investments.

Many of the “brownfield” projects in the developed regions are now implementing FDT-based PAM solutions to provide access to data embedded in a diverse set of smart field devices and other production equipment from multiple vendors running on various communication protocols throughout the company. To take advantage of this opportunity, control valve suppliers have been active in developing device type managers (DTMs) that enable their digital positioners to work with FDT-based PAM solutions.

Many control valve suppliers are also designing their digital positioners to support EDDL for Hart, Foundation Fieldbus, and Profibus as well. Another important product investment control valve suppliers are considering is the development of WirelessHart products, now that the Hart Version 7 specification with WirelessHart has been approved. WirelessHart entails much more than simply adding a radio to Hart field devices. The development of WirelessHart positioners enhances the functionality of Hart devices, and preserves the viability of Hart valve positioners indefinitely.

ARC estimates only 10-15% of the nearly 25 million installed Hart devices are connected to PAM systems. WirelessHart may be the enabler needed to connect these installed devices to PAM systems. Control valve suppliers continued to report big project wins in the oil and gas, refining, and petrochemical industries in the first quarter of 2008. Though the North American and European markets have slowed somewhat, suppliers are relatively immune, thanks to increased demand in developing markets, such as China, India, and the Middle East.

Worldwide growth of energy production continued unabated through 2007. Global oil and gas companies continue to reap unprecedented windfall profits thanks to historically high oil prices, even as exploration costs increase and international politics play a greater role. The record profits being enjoyed by oil and gas companies, one of the largest consumers of control valves, gives them ample capital to increase production and refining capacity to satisfy demand, which shows no sign of abating.

The value of oil has also caused oil and gas companies to work to improve their monitoring processes to prevent product loss and optimise production, which will require increased adoption of intelligent field devices, including control valves.

Upgrade For Electric Field Simulation

Software supports nonuniform voltage distribution to accurately represent the operating conditions of devices such as larger scale power transformers or electrical bushings. ElecNet, Infolytica’s 2D and 3D electric field simulation software, now supports nonuniform voltage distribution to accurately represent the operating conditions of devices such as larger scale power transformers or electrical bushings. ElecNet allows for electrodes to be excited with a nonuniform voltage distribution, accounting for the variations typically observed in these devices

ElecNet also features a new Streamline Generator. Streamlines expand on the current post-processing tools to include charts of the V and E fields along a streamline or where values of maximum E or J occur. ElecNet is now available for PCs running Microsoft Windows 2000, XP and Vista.

Cameras Provide Consistent Image Quality

The BM-500CL and BB-500CL cameras offer good thermal management and preprocessing to guarantee optimal sensor operation, giving high-quality images every time. JAI has added a 5Mpixel progressive scan camera to the Basic tier of its C3 camera suite, a complete camera range based on JAI’s Core Camera Concept (C3). The high-resolution 5Mpixel camera, equipped with a Camera Link (CL) interface, is available in two versions: BM-500CL (monochrome) and BB-500CL (raw Bayer colour).

Both models are built around the Sony ICX625 2/3in CCD sensor (2448 x 2050 pixels - QSXGA). This versatile and flexible mid-range camera offers good thermal management and preprocessing to guarantee optimal sensor operation, giving high-quality images every time. Potential applications for the BM-500CL/BB-500CL include automotive parts inspection, glass inspection, traffic enforcement, fruit sorting on broad conveyer belts and facial recognition at security checkpoints.

The camera’s analogue front end design enables it to operate at 15 frames a second with full 5Mpixel resolution, an improvement over the 12 frames a second rate found in some 5Mpixel cameras. Partial scanning and binning modes are also provided for increased flexibility and performance. In-camera pre-processing functions include automatic white balance to eliminate the need for performing this function in the host-based Bayer-to-RGB algorithm, LUT for dealing with difficult lighting conditions and a blemish compensation function which eliminates pixels with extremely low or high output characteristics by interpolating the neighboring pixels.

The BM-500CL/BB-500CL also features auto-iris lens control, making the camera suitable for outdoor applications with wideranging lighting conditions, such as intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and surveillance. The Camera Link interface offers a choice of 12, 10 or 8bit outputs. models with GigE Vision digital interfaces will be available in the near future. The BM-500CL/BB-500CL has the same uniform design philosophy shared by all cameras in JAI’s C3 camera range, making it easy for system integrators and OEMs installing diverse and complex machine vision solutions to adapt to varying camera demands by simply switching between models across the three tiers.

The C3 Compactentry-level camera series has a small form factor, single-tap high frame rate architecture, with a standard digital interface. The C3 Basic is a high-performance camera series with single or dual-tap imagers, inherent thermal management and a 55mm cube housing. The C3 Advanced series has a broad range of built-in pre-processing functions, resolutions up to 16Mpixel and multitap, 2CCD and 3CCD architectures.

Valves Control Mixing Of Adhesives And Sealants

The No-Drip design feature integrates carbide ball-end needles with carbide seats for long-life dispensing of low-viscosity abrasive materials. Sealant Equipment and Engineering’s 2200-545 series adjustable-stroke mix-dispense valves are designed for controlled flow of two-component adhesives and sealants such as silicones, epoxies, urethanes and acrylics. The valves are based on the company’s No-Drip valve body design for fluid control.

The No-Drip design feature integrates carbide ball-end needles with carbide seats for long-life dispensing of low-viscosity abrasive materials. The adjustable stroke feature allows the operator to fine tune the flow rate of the adhesive dispensing application by rotating the threaded stem on the back of the valve. The valve is also available with an eyelet stem for attaching to a tool balance.

The valves are 57mm, 140mm long and are rated to 240bar. The valves are double air actuated with two 1/8 NPT ports for four-way pneumatic valve connections. The divorced-design fluid body has two 1/4 NPT fluid inlet ports for Part A and B materials and accepts a wide variety of motionless mixers.

The valve bodies have two screw holes and two dowel holes for accurate mounting. The valves may be mounted to robot tooling, automation fixtures and electric or pneumatic valve handles. The valves are used to apply two-part adhesives and sealants for bonding, gasketing, coating, potting and filling processes in aerospace, appliance, contractor, defence, electronics, filters, marine, medical, sporting goods, automotive, truck and bus assembly dispensing applications.

Pipe Couplers Ease Flashback Arrester Fitting

Pipe couplers enhance welding and cutting system safety by simplifying the integration of flashback arresters in copper EN12449 or stainless steel pipes. A new range of Wittfix pipe couplers specifically allow flashback arresters to be integrated into copper EN12449 or stainless steel pipes supplying gases for welding and cutting. These couplers are suitable for gas operating pressures up to 25bar with a male and female version required for each integration.

They are available in a number of different sizes ranging from 6mm diameter pipe to 15m diameter pipe. They are easy to install, just cut the end of the pipe squarely to the required length, clean any burrs or rough edges and place the end of the tube into a pipe coupler and carefully tighten by hand, then mark the end of the coupler nut at the six-o’clock position. Hold the double nipple with a spanner and tighten the nut according to the table in the instructions provided.

The Wittfix pipe installation system uses novel O-ring joint fittings that eliminate the need for silver soldering or welding of joints, reducing installation times and making installations for short term use feasible, since the pipe can be re-used.

A full range of adapters is available in brass or stainless steel including equal couplers, straight-line connectors, T-pieces and 90-degree bends. All joints can be made gas tight by initially hand tightening and then using a spanner for the final tightening, for pressures up to 25bar. Fittings for higher pressures can be made to order. A feature of this system is that no marks are made to the surface of the pipe, provided no excessive force is used, allowing the pipe to be re-used.

Enclosures Protect Industrial PCs

Computer Security and Solutions enclosures are available in different metal finishes, including stainless steel for food applications and mild steel for general industrial applications. Computers are the fragile link in the technology network of any successful business They are designed for office environments, not warehouses, factory floors or cold stores. A PC enclosure provides a cost-effective way of protecting the computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse.

The enclosures create a positive air pressure inside the protected area, keeping out gases. The enclosures are available in different metal finishes, including stainless steel for food applications and mild steel for general industrial applications. Some enclosures can be cooled to -60C and heated to +110C.