Heavy duty rotary encoder- absolute encoder

For applications involving heavy shaft loads, shock, vibration, dust, and liquid contaminants, encoders need to be configured accordingly.  Selecting an appropriate housing is a good starting point to ensure proper encoder function and performance.  Here are several encoder housing options from EPC that are specifically engineered to withstand the rigors of harsh industrial environments.

When specifying any rotary encoder, you'll want to give adequate consideration to mechanical and environmental specifications.  With heavy duty industrial applications, these factors assume an increased measure of importance.  Critical questions to ask include:

• Are the bearing load ratings adequate for anticipated axial and radial loads?
• Will the encoder withstand shock and vibration it's likely to encounter?
• Is the Ingress Protection (IP) Rating appropriate for the level of exposure to dust, dirt, debris, or liquids? 
• Will the encoder be exposed to harsh chemicals that can potentially degrade the housing, shaft or other components?

In terms of rotary encoders, the best means of maintaining product longevity and performance is to keep the hazards of the outside world from effecting the internal electronic components.  Robust bearings and IP65 or better shaft seals are commonly used methods.   

In several models, EPC takes this approach one step further with an encoder-within-an-encoder design.  The internal encoder is isolated from shaft loads by either a flexible coupling or a thru-bore and flexible tether mount.  Loads applied to the external shaft are carried on a separate pair of heavy duty bearings. An IP67 shaft seal is available and dual O-rings seal the case/bearing hub interface.  

Whether you're dealing with metal forming, material handling, wood products, agriculture, mining or other industries, CALT offers several solutions for heavy duty industrial feedback applications.  For each model, click the link to Product Information to see data sheets with  complete specifications.   Also be sure to check out theApplication Notes, Videos, White Papers and other resources referenced below.

multi turn absolute encoder

What is A Draw Wire Sensor?

What is A Draw Wire Sensor?

It turns out that String pots are really a type of draw wire sensor. This class of sensor is marked by its use of spooled wire or cable of some kind that is attached to a moving object whose linear position is to be measured.

In every area critical to durability and performance, CALT has extended the design of the class of linear transducers known as “Draw Wire Sensors” into something perfectly suited to reliable usage in extreme environments. The results are not only patented, but result in performance and durability parameters that bear little resemblance to their string pot ancestors….

1. No string
   • Uses a stainless steel braided cable. The type of steel used (302, 304, 316) is selected for the particular application environment. Cable winding and diameter is also carefully selected for the size of the sensor, the cylinder stroke length, and the overall use case.
2. No pot
   • In our design, the objective sensor is a Linear Variable Differential Transducer (LVDT). Immune to heat, liquid, temperature, RFI, EMI, shock, vibration….and it’s NON-CONTACTING, so it never wears out.

3. No Sealed Volumes in the assembly
   • The CPI sensor has no sealed cavities or subassemblies. The device is immune to pressure or liquid environments because it is made entirely from precision-machined metal parts: No seals. No closed air volumes. As such it can be immersed, and mounted on the oil or gas side of the cylinder.

4. Patented Translating Spool
   • String pots have a fixed spool and cable feed point. This is not optimal. CPI’s Linear Sensors have a patented Translating Spool. The spool moves laterally as it winds or unwinds. This means that the spool can hold more cable, more securely. In a string pot, the cable has to move over itself as it winds up. In our product, the spool moves out of the way of the cable.

5. Patented Linear-to-Rotary-to-Linear technology
   • String pots work by turning a potentiometer with a cable spool. Many of our clients have abandoned String-Pots because “they don’t sense fast enough”. Essentially the transducer is directly tied to the rapid rotation of the spool and provides unreliable readings at higher rotational speeds. By contrast, CPI’s sensor works by reducing, via a precision micrometer thread mechanism, the long linear translation of the object to be sensed. The first reduction is to a rotary motion (the spool); then to a short, easily calibrated linear translation (the LVDT). No other linear sensing technology works like this.