IEN: What are the major concerns facing sensing, and how can they be addressed?
Nehring: Repeatability, reliability, durability. Sensopart Photoelectrics offers focusable lasers able to see through the eye of a needle at 50 meters, color sensors able to reliably sense shades of a color, vision sensors in a 30 mm barrel housing with integrated white LEDs, and many other sensors designed to solve the toughest sensing applications.
IEN: What issues confront machine vision? How can they be resolved?
Nehring: Low cost, reliable machine vision. One solution is the Sensopart FA30, which offers machine vision in a 30 mm barrel housing with 8 integrated white LEDs. Besides being unique for its small size, the Sensopart FA30 offers features that include the option of image recognition, contrast mode, grey scale mode, and sorting mode (sensor is capable of storing 16 images and sorting through each image, giving you an output of which image is recognized). LEDs can be turned on or off and also adjusted for optimal image exposure. Setup and software (free with purchase of sensor) are user friendly, which is very important considering the cost of employee time.
IEN: What innovations are in store for users in the areas of: color, intelligent sensing, high-end edge detection, MEMS/sensing clusters, nanotechnology, data acquisition, software, ruggedization?
Nehring: The Sensopart FT50C is the most advanced color sensor on the market, utilizing white light LED. FT50C is able to scan up to 3 colors and also has a function available that lets you scan a multitude of colors utilizing only one channel. 5 tolerance setting allows for recognition of shades of colors -- reliably. FT50C is offered with four different light spots to meet all color sensing applications: 4 mm x 4 mm round light spot, 2 mm x 2 mm square light spot, 1 mm x 4 mm rectangular light spot. The sensor is loaded with functions and capabilities, yet is available at a low price.