Whether objects are in solid, liquid or powder form; whether you want to detect, count, measure, monitor or position, sensors are invaluable in plants of all types and sizes; in conveyor systems, packaging lines or printing presses, and in robot cells, lifts, industrial presses or automatic welding applications. To meet the exceptional demand of complex manufacturing processes and high speed applications, Siemens offers a broad range of sensing solutions that include ultrasonic, photoelectric, inductive, and capacitive proximity sensors. SIMATIC PX Sensors offer non-contact detection of objects, are UL/CSA, CE and IEC approved, and some have up to an IP69K degree of protection. They cover sensing distances from 0.5 mm to 10 m, and can evaluate absolute distance and detect most target materials including metals, non metals, liquids, different colors, and transparent objects even under adverse conditions due to their insensitivity to temperature changes and noise.

Unique to Siemens are IQ-Sense devices, which provide an intelligent integration of sensors into automation systems. These devices offer a high feature sensing system that combines special photoelectric or ultrasonic sensors to IO modules. The advantages of this integration are:

• Fast commissioning by machine and plant engineers, as all settings for the IQ Sense devices can be set using the PLC
• Reduction in downtimes due to integrated diagnostic information down to the sensor level as well as Channel-specific system diagnostics
• Low wiring overhead thanks to polarity-independent two-wire design
• Avoidance of sensor interaction through anti-interference function
• Sensor parameters are teachable, can be copied and sensors can replaced during operation and no additional parameterization software is needed