Industrial camera

"The perfect combination: High speed interface and state of the art CMOS sensors!"

IDS's USB 3 uEye CP camera family is now available with the EV76C570 Global Shutter Sensor from e2v. The CMOS sensor delivers the same image quality and light sensitivity as CCD and has plenty of other innovative features (including a choice of three shutter modes and multi AOI). In conjunction with the high speed USB 3.0 interface, the new camera is particularly recommended for use in 3D image processing, for example in process automation or vehicle body inspection, as well as in medical technology, robotics and logistics. It achieves a frame rate of 60 frames per second at full resolution, up to 100 fps in VGA quality.

The UI-3250CP model has a choice of three shutter modes, which can be changed during operation. This enables you to choose the correct shutter for every application and provides unlimited flexibility if requirements should change. Thanks to multi AOI, with four AOIs and a sequential AOI function, different features can be captured with a very high frame rate or a series of exposures can be produced. In addition to a line scan mode, the camera also has a log mode. This enables high contrast scenes to be reproduced in perfect image quality with just one shot.

The USB 3.0 camera is extremely compact, at just 29 x 29 x 29 mm. As well as trigger, flash and pulse width modulation, it features two universal GPIOs (general purpose I/Os). With a magnesium housing and screw-on Micro USB 3.0 and Hirose connections, it can withstand adverse ambient conditions in industrial or outdoor environments.

Apart from the new model with 2 megapixel e2v sensor, the USB 3 uEye CP camera range also includes models with resolutions from wide VGA to 5 megapixels. IDS also offers the new CMOS sensor in its camera models with USB 2.0 and GigE connection.

Award for component supplier

Anglia Components  has been presented with the first ever Electronic Component Supplier of the Year award by Texcel Technology.

Left to right: Peter Shawyer, Commercial Director, Texcel Technology; Karen Ward, Director – Sales Office, Anglia; Chris Rex, Key Account Manager, Anglia; Brian Edmunds, Purchasing Manager, Texcel Technology and Claire Bates, Strategic Sales, Anglia.

According to Peter Shawyer, Commercial Director, Texcel Technology introduced the awards in recognition of the key role its supply chain plays in delivering excellence to customers. He said, “Having decided to reward our key suppliers in 2012, Anglia emerged as the clear Electronic Component Supplier of the Year. This was based upon scored criteria which included quality, delivery, delivered cost, and communications. Anglia matched or comfortably exceeded our other suppliers on each of these metrics.”

Peter Shawyer pointed to a number of factors that set Anglia’s service apart, but the real difference he believes is the people. “Though Anglia has grown significantly in the time we’ve dealt with them, it hasn’t lost its family feel. Everyone is friendly, helpful and nice to deal with and they all pull together to make things work for us as a customer. There are other things too though – for example having a buffer stock held in a UK warehouse is a real help. We can have a delivery the next day if we really need it – at no additional cost to our normal contract price.”

Steve Rawlins, Anglia CEO responded saying, “Well done to Chris Rex, our Texcel account manager and everyone in Anglia who has helped delight Texcel. The Fortnum and Mason wine hamper Peter presented us with was much enjoyed, but the 80% increase in business we do together is the real testament to the success of this relationship.”

Career talk and robotic demonstration

Mitsubishi Electric visited Tallaght Community School to perform a career talk and Robot demonstration for its students.

As part of Engineers Week (25 Feb-3 Mar 2013) run by Engineers Ireland, a visit to the transition year students at Tallaght Community School (Dublin, IRL) was made by Mitsubishi Electric Ireland Factory Automation Division to discuss Engineering as a possible career path.

LtoR: Mary O’ Sullivan,Transition Year
Coordinator,  Ciarán Moody, Mitsubishi
& Theresa Hennessy, Tallaght Community
School Vice Principal. 

Engineers Week is a week long programme of nationwide events with the aim of celebrating the world of engineering in Ireland. The purpose of the week is to promote and encourage maths and science subjects among students.

The talk was aimed at transition year students who are at the critical stages of selecting the subjects that will eventually help determine their future career paths. Several engineers from the Factory Automation Division visited the school to discuss the reasons behind their career choices and to reveal what a life in Engineering really means.

 Ciaran Moody, Business Unit Manager, Mitsubishi Electric Ireland Factory Automation, said “Mitsubishi Electric are very aware of the importance of Science and Maths in education and hope to promote these subjects among students. The key focus for this talk and robot demo for Mitsubishi Electric was to help inspire students to consider engineering as a career choice and ultimately help ensure the future supply of qualified engineers in the automation industry.”

Mitsubishi Electric Factory also performed a robotic demonstration using one of their multi-axis articulated arm robots to show students a real robot in action and discuss the steps involved in programming a robot. A select few supervised students were awarded the opportunity to operate the robot much to their delight.

“A wonderful enlightening introduction into the world of engineering, one that captivated our students and gave them food for thought for a future in the world of engineering.” said Mary O’ Sullivan, Transition Year Co-ordinator, Tallaght Community School.

iPhone and Android climate control

Enclosure climate control calculations can now be carried out, on the move, using the Rittal RiTherm smartphone app.

Guiding the user through the usually time-consuming process of calculating climate control requirements for individual enclosure assemblies, Rittal’s RiTherm app uses an intuitive interface for the input of enclosure details and design parameters. Suitable cooling and heating equipment can be selected quickly and easily using typical smartphone controls.

Correctly sized climate control components can be chosen in five simple steps:

1. Project title – reference line for e-mail
2. Parameters – design temperatures and available supply voltage and frequency
3. Enclosure – enclosure dimensions and position and heat loss of installed equipment
4. Selection – type of cooling solution
5. Recommendation – summary of selected equipment

Results may be viewed either on the smartphone or sent via e-mail.

Providing a compact variant of the full version of the Rittal software “Therm 6.2”, the app is now available for both Android and iOS (iPhone) operating systems.

D-coded overmoulded cable assemblies

A new range of M12 D-coded overmoulded cable assemblies from Harting uses 360° screened M12 Ethernet connection cable to offer reliable data transmission, particularly in industrial environments affected by electromagnetic interference.

The combination of high-performance screening with a design aimed at optimum data rates ensures reliable and interference-free data transmission, particularly where special industrial standards are applied.

All 4-wire cable connections are overmoulded along with the optimised M12 components, which feature crimp connection technology, gold-plated contacts and IP 65/67 protection. The cables can also be supplied in 100 m rings and on 500 m cable drums.

The new assemblies meet the performance requirements of Cat.5e, 4-pole, D-coded as specified in the IEC 61076-2-101 standard, and are also approved for use in rail applications.

M12 connectors are widely used in industry and transport applications because of their robust design, superior protection type and good vibration-proof properties.

Weighing Cabernet-Sauvignon and Merlot

The Château Gruaud-Larose wine-growing estate in the northwestern Bordeaux region uses Siemens weighing technology to harvest its crop, to optimise the grape gathering process and to ensure precise crop weighing. The vines have to be handled with extreme care directly following the harvest, and the process of unloading the grapes from the trailer to the incoming scales must be performed without wastage.

To ensure that the yield from the 80 hec - tares of predominantly Cabernet- Sauvignon and Merlot vines is fully traceable and the quality of the wine assured, the harvest gathered in from each parcel of land must be weighed separately.

Because absolute precision is paramount, estate management decided to install the Sitrans WW200 weighfeeder from Siemens. As this weighing system is designed to allow wide-ranging customization, it was a simple matter to adjust it to the specific needs of the vineyard in terms of its belt length and type, infeed configuration and drive technology. At the same time, this solution guarantees high-precision weight recording and fulfills stringent hygiene requirements. A Milltronics BW500 integrator and a Micromaster MM420 frequency inverter are also used to determine all the important weighing values.

Press force sensor!

The Type 9313 piezoelectric press force sensor from Kistler is particularly suited to measuring both dynamic and quasistatic forces. Preloaded and provided with practical adaptation options, the sensor is ready for immediate use. It comes in two different sizes which not only differ in their dimensions but also in their measuring ranges; 0-50 N and 0-20 kN. Each variant is calibrated for three compression measuring ranges; 1%, 10% and 100% of full range and can measure uncalibrated tensile forces up to 10% of the maximum compression force.

The square shape and small size makes the sensor easy to install where space is limited and the low weight introduces minimum effect on the dynamic force curves. Mounting by axial threaded bores brings advantages in difficult mounting situations.

The special properties of the piezoelectric measuring element mean that measuring accuracy is practically constant over a wide range of forces allowing the same press force sensor to be used for a large spectrum of forces. The facility to switch measuring ranges by using a suitable amplifier provides an additional advantage allowing for the general trend towards more component diversity in manufacturing and measuring stations. The wide-range measuring chain also offers decisive advantages in laboratory applications by minimising the need to change sensors frequently. In addition, the extremely high overload capacity, when using the lower measuring ranges, makes protective measures unnecessary.