SICK

This group consists of components that protect the operator in machine areas where hazardous motion is present: safety light curtains, safety laser scanners, safety switches and the safety controllers that evaluate them. When entry into the protective field is detected, the signal is passed directly to the safety chain and the machine enters its defined stopping behavior. Hand protection on presses and bending machines, area protection in robot cells and palletizing stations, and surrounding monitoring on autonomous vehicles are typical applications. Products are selected according to the safety level determined in the risk assessment and are engineered together with the correct mounting distance.

This is a sensor group that detects the presence, position or distance of a part without contact on automation lines, and the sensing principle is selected according to the application. Inductive sensors respond only to metal targets and therefore replace mechanical limit switches in dirty and oily environments; photoelectric sensors work with a light beam and detect over longer distances regardless of material; ultrasonic sensors use sound reflection and therefore provide an advantage on transparent, shiny or dusty surfaces and in level measurement. Part counting on conveyors, triggering at filling and packaging stations, and roll-diameter and storage-level tracking are common points of use.

Vision systems evaluate the image captured by the camera to produce decisions that a single switching signal cannot provide: is the part correct, is the assembly complete, at what angle is it positioned. When the resulting position and angle information is transferred to the robot, randomly arriving parts can be picked without a fixed feeder; in measurement and surface inspection, a defective product is removed before it reaches the end of the line. The SICK range extends from smart cameras that perform two-dimensional inspection to three-dimensional systems that also extract height and volume information. It is used for quality control and traceability on packing, packaging and assembly lines.

Fixed-mounted code readers read the information on the product or carrier without stopping the line and transfer it to the control system, so that each part can be tracked individually within the production flow. Laser-based scanners are used for linear barcodes, while image-based readers are used for two-dimensional codes and for marks applied directly onto the part by laser or dot peening. Challenging situations such as low contrast, soiling and partially damaged codes are the typical problems this family is expected to solve. Sorting and routing points, warehouse inbound-outbound, recipe matching on the assembly line and final-product label verification are the main applications.

Encoders convert the drive system's position, angle and speed information into an electrical signal, forming the feedback leg of closed-loop control. The SICK range covers incremental types based on pulse counting, absolute types that retain position even after a power outage, safety encoders that provide data to the safety controller, and wheel- or draw-wire-mechanism solutions for linear measurement. The availability of both optical and magnetic measuring principles allows a selection to be made for different environments, from clean in-machine mounting to vibrating and dirty field conditions. It is used in crane hoisting-traversing axes, cutting and winding lines, conveyor synchronization and motor feedback applications.