Designed especially for the packaging industry and launched at Interpack, SICK's new KTS and KTX product families present new, powerful contrast and colour sensors from a forward-looking platform.
The new product range offers patented TwinEye technology for improved contrast detection and sensing distance tolerance (+- 5 mm) and the specially developed three-colour LED with high-precision, colour-mixed light spot.
Another benefit, according to SICK is that the 'jitter' has been minimised to "a level never before seen", and this, coupled with absolute high-speed switching frequencies, opens up new possibilities when it comes to detecting contrasts and – for the first time in a sensor – colours too.
IO-Link and additional integrated functions such as recipe management ensure maximum versatility, while the innovative, multifunctional 7-segment display guarantees simple yet customised sensor setup, operation, and visualisation.
Familiar applications such as the detection of print marks or the control of industrial labelling processes benefit from even greater process stability and performance, SICK says.
The sensors detect high-gloss materials and complex contrasts, even on heavily jittering materials. The integrated colour mode also enables reliable detection of even the most minor contrast differences and colour features.
According to SICK, the KTX product family offers compatibility without compromise: Both the hole pattern for mounting the sensors and the electrical connectivity facilitate a 1:1 migration from other SICK product families to the new technology platform.
In its space-saving compact housing, the KTS meets all requirements of modern machine concepts. The KTS contrast sensors come in “CORE” and “PRIME” configurations; these offer different levels of functionality, enabling a variety of different automation needs to be met individually and cost-effectively.
The even more finely granular grayscale resolution of the KTS and KTX, the integrated colour mode, and the large number of other technical innovations in both product families are setting a new standard in the market for contrast sensor technology – and opening up additional areas of application at the same time, such as the detection of wafers, the management of reel changes, or quality control.
