Can you Solve Problems just by choosing products?
Only if you know what you want, how to use it, etc.
Nowadays in industry, as you may find elsewhere, you could have the urge to keep changing as well as in consumer world. Though in Industry you should be pushed by production and efficiency rather than fashion and trends, it is important to correctly identify what you actually need since company’s investments lay behind.
DO I REALLY NEED WHAT THEY OFFER ME?
How can we identify such need?
A shortcut is to ask someone who can do it for you. However it cannot be one of your suppliers, since it would conflict with their interests and she/he will advise you her/his products.
Instead of going through shortcuts, I suggest to grow this skill by yourself, looking around you and trying to get something out of the many data you encounter in your job.
My personal experience is with photoelectric sensors in factory automation and I will use it to give you some example of what I mean with “problem”.
Although you may not belong to this field, you might find my conclusion interesting anyway, for example because you are just tired of people shouting at you they have the best product.
SEIZING THE PROBLEM IS HALF OF THE SOLUTION
So what is your need in industry when you are looking for the “right” sensor?
Forget there is a sensor that fits all applications. Each one has got different solutions. So my first suggestion is to analyze that specific application and extract the “problem” behind.
So I would like to give you some example to make you understand what I mean with applications, problems and solutions.
LET’S GET PRACTICAL
Suppose the object you have to detect (your target) is small or sharp. So your sensor must be “precise”. Like a laser? Probably but not necessarily.
There are cases where laser might not be the first choice, especially if the object is shiny (metal or metallized parts): the surface might reflect away the whole laser beam.
So you first need a sensor with a small spot: a tiny aperture will reduce the sensing range, but increase the precision in the detection.
Other situations occur with target moving at high speed. This mostly happens in narrow spaces: small objects, fast motion, no space available as in production at high rate or on the fly processing where you would need fast detection of an edge.
You choice for a sensor depends on “how much” (how much speed, how much precision, etc.), but to stay on the safe side, I would suggest fiber optics sensors.
They combine small aperture (the fiber head) and high speed electronics (usually referred as fiber unit base or fiber amplifier).
Then, how to detect objects of different color and transparency?
That’s a usual puzzle in automation because in case your sensor ought to be reflective type (Tx and Rx on the same side), changes in colors may reduce the performance (lower precision) or even make detection unreliable.
This is a common situation because products out machines may have been made by several materials of different color and transparency. Therefore you would need a specific technology: background suppression.
Of course you may even think about a combination of the above three characteristics (speed, color-change and precision) or even more challenging ones. My messange is that the greater your experience, the easier you would find the best combination application-sensors solution.
CONCLUSION
With these few examples I tried to compel you on focusing on what you really need without talking about products and data-sheet that might confuse you.
I chose sensors, because it is something I deal with every day, however you may apply this approach to other topics:
- analyze your situation,
- understand the problem,
- assess the possible solutions,
- choose the right product.
This way you would Solve your Problems covering your real needs and giving a concrete add value to your company.
So: focus, analyze and compare. Then decide.