P|Prox displacement sensor: Extreme precision measurement for all metals

The IxP precision proximity sensor (P|Prox) family performs the work of a traditional displacement sensor at a fraction of the price in industries such as automotive, factory automation, food & beverage, machine tools, and metalworking.

The state-of-the-art technology enables reliable operation even when exposed to high magnetic fields. The P|Prox proximity sensor, with excellent repeatability, ensures process stability and improves product quality by measuring absolute distance values between the active sensing face and a metallic target directly in pure digital form.

The inductance change is measured and converted into an absolute distance value in the microcontroller without A/D conversion losses. This allows the sensor to provide sub-micron resolution. Accuracy and repeatability remain constant regardless of the target metals.

Benefits

Improve process stability and product quality		Reduce total cost of ownership		Simplify complexity

Extremely high accuracy in the micrometer range ensures most precise process control and yields products with the best quality. Unparalled repeatability! Process drift due to unstable or inconsistent measurements is elimiated, ensuring the same quality level for each batch. Pure digital IO-Link output without conversion loss provides no negative impact on the actual measured value.		Commissioning costs are reduced since no manual scaling is required. The P\|Prox outputs the absolute distance to a metallic surface in mm continuously. Reduce inventory costs, since one sensor provides accurate distance measurement of all types of metal. No correction factor is required. Standard M8, M12, M18, and M30 form factors eliminate the need for special mounting and calibration accessories.		Plug-and-work on all metal targets, elimiating time-consuming fine adjustment. One-piece design with compact housing without the need of an external evaluation unit. Factory calibrated with aluminum provides best performance on all metals. If necessary, immediate performance improvement can be achieved with 1-click on-the-fly calibration.

Traditional analog sensor

P|Prox displacement sensor with IO-Link

 
Accuracy and repeatability varyFactors such as thermal noise, signal attenuation, temperature, and other influences affect negatively affect analog signals.
Degradation of analog signals lead to toss of information and reduced measurement accuracy.

        
State-of-the-art technology provides sub-micron accuracy and repeatabilityP|Prox measures the distance to the target and directly converts this measurement into a digital distance value within its microchip.
Minute changes in distance can be measured and signaled. No internal conversion losses provide consistent accuracy and repeatability.
Low temperature drift.

 
Time-consuming adjustments, calibraion, and manual scalingApplications requiing high resolution measurements often require time-consuming on-site calibration.
Mechanical fine adjustments using spacers is usually performed after the sensor is installed.
Analog signal is proportional to the measured distance and manual scaling is generally required.

        
Plug-and-Work solutionSince the output is absolute distance in mm, no manual scaling is required.
Default calibration is done with aluminum.
Standard performance, acceptible most applications, is achieved with other metals such as steel, and stainless steel
For specialty applications such as detection of small objects, calibration can be done in seconds.

 
One sensor for one type of metalTraditionally, to achieve high accuracy, the application is target-dependent and the sensor is calibrated for one type of metal.
For other metals, a new sensor custom calibration is required.

        
One sensor for ALL metalsNo reduction in range, and accuracy and resolution of distance measurement are constant with all metals.
Simplifies the integration and reduces inventory complexity.

 
No additional diagnosticsTraditional inductive sensors only output discrete or analog signals that are susceptible to noise interferences.
Connection requires long home run cables or direct connections, often with hundreds of wire terminations.
Information on sensor health and application strength is not available.

        
Unlock the power of IO-LinkInformation such as real-time alerts and reactions, device temperature, and other device diagnostics are available.
P|Prox connects to an IO-Link master via an industry standard M12 A-coded cordset.