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Inductive sensors are as common in factory automation systems today as rice in risotto. The market is currently saturated with a diverse range of offers. Whoever sets out to convince the user of the superiority of their products must be intimately acquainted with their needs, providing appropriate solutions. The development of a company’s product program is the guarantee that customers will continue to profit from innovations in such supposedly “simple” products as sensors.
For over 30 years inductive sensors have been deployed for an increasing range of applications, providing solutions for the manifold problems encountered with mechanical switches. Thanks to their wear-free characteristics, they have now established themselves in the field of industrial automation. However, these applications gave rise to a series of further problems resulting from their limited temperature range, their sensitivity to magnetic fields and their dependence on the material to be detected (iron, stainless steel, copper, brass, aluminium).
Special sensor types had to be developed for these difficult applications, giving rise to a plethora of alternative sensors in addition to the original model. This resulted in expensive and complex stock keeping measures. What was needed was a universal sensor with a uniform reduction factor – hence the name Factor1 – and a greater switching distance, regardless of the material employed.
As early as 1993 the sensor specialist Turck succeeded in developing a solution for this problem: the uprox sensor with non-ferrite core and immunity to interfering magnetic fields. At the end of 2004, eleven years after the development of the first uprox sensor, Turck presented the “Plus + ” version with integrated PCB coil. With the new sensor family uprox®+ the sensor specialist had succeeded in taking a further step towards their goal of a universal sensor...
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