With the new AlphaProx IR12 and IR18 High Sensitivity sensors, Baumer is offering a true worldwide innovation: the first teachable standard inductive sensors for measuring tiny changes in position. Thanks to their high sensitivity and linearity, they are ideal for measuring indirect force. In a machine, for example, the deformation of a metal support can be used to determine the load acting on it. Up to now, this problem could only be solved by expensive eddy-current sensors or by using strain gauges, which are difficult to install. As well as a very good price-performance ratio, AlphaProx High Sensitivity sensors also offer another important advantage: thanks to the innovative teach-in method, the sensors can be installed and put into operation quickly and easily. Now the laborious fine mechanical adjustment is at last a thing of the past.

AlphaProx High Sensitivity sensors have a measuring range of 0.25 mm and can detect changes in position in the micrometer range, even in difficult environments. Thanks to the reduced measuring range, even the tiniest displacements lead to a significant change in the output signal, and can easily be further processed even with standard 8-bit input modules. If customers so wish, AlphaProx High Sensitivity sensors can also be supplied with an individual measuring range.

Despite their high measuring sensitivity, AlphaProx High Sensitivity sensors can be put into operation very quickly and easily thanks to the innovative 1-point teach-in method: the sensor only has to be positioned roughly 1 to 3 mm in front of the object to be detected. The position is simply learned on the sensor side by means of a teach command. This allows the sensor to show a defined output value in this position (offset correction). It is possible to set not only a start or end position (0V or 10 V), as with other sensors, but also the middle position (5V). This means that the sensors are outstandingly suited to measuring vibrations in shafts. The sensors are linear over the entire measuring range and have extremely low deviations in series production. This means that complex individual adjustment can be dispensed with when installing several sensors. This is a further ad-vantage in terms of comfort and efficiency.

Thanks to their compact housing without an external amplifier, AlphaProx High Sensitivity sensors are not only a highly interesting alternative to eddy-current sensors. They are also a contactless, easy-to-install alternative to strain gauges, without any effect on the object to be measured. The sensors can be fitted in different places, and thus fit into all machine designs. Thanks to the teach function, an offset can also be subsequently corrected at any time.

AlphaProx by Baumer is a flexible platform for distance-measuring inductive sensors, with integrated evaluation electronics and a very good price-performance ratio for automation in industry. No matter whether very confined spaces, large distances, critical environments, tiny changes in position or highly accurate measurements, easy-to-install AlphaProx sensors offer the perfect solution.