OMRON, a global leader in advanced sensing, control & think technologies, has recently launched the light convergent reflective sensor, B5W-LB which can be embedded within the industrial equipment. The new product adopts unique lens structure combining four types of aspherical lenses and realises stable detection with wide sensing range regardless of colors and materials such as shiny, black, and transparent surface.

 

With the recent advances in a wide range of industrial equipment such as packagers and coffee makers, they have become increasingly sophisticated and multifunctional, needs are growing for sensors that can accurately detect products without being affected by the design of containers and packages.

 

Conventional reflective sensors which have been embedded in the equipment were adopted on the premise that detection is carried out under specific conditions, based on the color and material of the object to be detected. However, there was a problem of unstable detection when the object was changed or added.

 

Detection by light convergent reflective method are used for sensors for factory manufacturing facilities. These new sensors are not affected by a change of object color and/or material, contributing to a reduction of malfunctions. On the other hand, sensors using the light convergent reflective method have a narrower range of distance for detecting an object, and may overlook a product that is not in its predetermined position.

 

The company plans to actively promote research and development to realise automation of various applications with sensors, contributing to solving customers’ problems.The new sensors helps stable detection of mirror, black, and transparent objects. No need of a setting change for each object to be detected, contributing to higher usability. It can perform reliable detection of the object regardless of its color and/or background, reducing malfunction and contributing to customer satisfaction. These new sensors have proprietary lens structure combining four types of aspheric lenses that ensures a wide detection range which is less susceptible to object’s positional shift, and contributes to stable operation of the equipment.