By Mark Sippel and Tom Draper, Balluff

The Optical Sensor Emerges
When it comes to the level of quality that is acceptable in today’s manufacturing marketplace, one fact stands out. Advanced manufacturing assembly operations can only meet the requirements of these customers by making 100% perfect parts all day, all the time, and at constantly reduced cost and higher productivity. We at Balluff see the next step forward in sensor-driven product quality improvement as the merger between sensor and vision system.

Sensor-Driven Error-Proofing Meets Vision Systems
Sensor suppliers are now providing more sophisticated sensors and application techniques advancing up the curve towards vision solutions. Meanwhile vision providers are trying to expand down the curve towards the discrete sensor world. But instead of a crash of technologies, there is a new layer of technology evolving that combines the best from each.

Enter Sharpshooter™, the First Optical Sensor
Balluff’s Sharpshooter™ bridges the gap between the two technologies by providing a simple, practical, and cost effective way to error proof production by simultaneously checking several aspects of the product with a single device. Sharpshooter uses a simple configuration interface that can be learned and used quickly by in-house staff. This new optical sensor uses simplified configuration interfaces and multiple inspection/measurement algorithms driving multiple sensing options to provide more information than a single function “smart camera” or a standard discrete sensor. At the same time, Sharpshooter avoids the traps of complex vision systems in cost, complexity, and needed expertise for achieving reliable error proofing.

Using Sharpshooter as an Advanced Error Proofing Optical Sensor
This new type of sensor is used more like a smart sensor than a vision system. Just like a sensor, Sharpshooter is configured to look for certain attributes of a part or product to make sure specific aspects of the product are present, the part is configured correctly and positioning is verified. But unlike a discrete sensor, because it is an optical sensor, Sharpshooter does not need the part to be presented exactly the same way for each inspection, thus reducing fixturing costs. And unlike a discrete sensor, Sharpshooter can check for multiple characteristics at the same time, thus justifying its slightly higher cost by delivering a higher ROI that accrues sooner. It does this by taking the place of several sensors, each of which can only check one thing at a time. As opposed to using a more traditional sensing array, Sharpshooter can also significantly reduce the complexity and cost of error proofing while improving overall reliability. This opens up a new world of error proofing that was not available before for reducing planned down time, easier line changeovers, and better accommodation of flexible or “build to suit” manufacturing.

For further information, contact Tom Draper at tom.draper@balluff.com or go to www.balluff.com/sharpshooter.