Pin-Point LED technology provides viable alternative to laser based sensors
28 July 2010
SICK (UK) has increased the intensity, brightness and accuracy of opto-sensor technology with its new Pin-Point LED. The Pin-Point, which delivers performance comparable to a short-range laser scanner, significantly broadens the range and performance of SICK’s LED-based photoelectric switches and photoelectric proximity switches
A new design of LED, the Pin-Point vastly increases light spot intensity and concentrates the energy on a much smaller area. It boasts greater functional reserves, improved detection reliability and the capacity to detect over longer ranges.
Using the Pin-Point, SICK photoelectric switches can detect much smaller objects, down to 1mm, at distances up to 500mm, providing an viable alternative to laser diode photoelectric switches.
Moreover, Pin-Point technology doesn’t require the safety regime required for lasers; it has a wider temperature operating range and, at 100,000 hours, typically lasts twice as long as a laser diode device, offering significant purchase and in-use cost savings.
This latest development has completely reconfigured conventional LED design, by removing the bonding wire at the tip of the LED, which creates a very distinctive central black spot in the emitted light, and a halo of lower intensity light. The resulting Pin-Point spot has virtually no halo effect and its homogenous intensity enables a much tighter and more precise focus.
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