DeltaPac photoelectric sensor: Bridging the gap

SICK AG: Now products can be counted and detected on the conveyor in a way that was not possible before. Without gaps. Without delays. The DeltaPac accurately detects and differentiates between successive packaging items on the fly. This ensures faster, smarter and more economical production. In other words: The DeltaPac is a patented technological world first.

Patented Delta-S-Technology®

What makes this possible is the patented Delta-S-Technology® from SICK. Two energy scales each featuring two receivers and quadruple LED technology PinPoint 2.0 merge with SICK’s SIRIC® ASIC technology and integrated distance measurement. The functional principle of DeltaPac utilizes the edge contours of objects. In the gapless transition from one object to the next, the edges change the reflectance behavior of the package surface. This change in direction of reflectance is used for outputting switching signals. Object contours with radii of up to 20mm are thus detected reliably. The high-precision evaluation characteristic of DeltaPac ensures detection of even the smallest changes in angle. In this way, one can dependably detect up to 200,000 packages an hour at speeds reaching 3m/s.

DeltaPac serves to detect objects running in push-push mode. This affords new options when designing packaging machines: One can do both without machine elements used for buffering and without mechanical systems for separating, which saves costs and improves the spatial balance of the machine. The result is smoothing out the product flow since packages no longer topple over and collisions are prevented. Machine downtimes, incorrect picks during package grouping, and quality losses due to crashes are prevented reliably – with positive effects on the packaging machine’s utilization of time, energy, and availability.

Tailor-made operating designs

Fast commissioning without adjustment or well-directed process optimization by means of individual parameterization – SICK has translated the demands by manufacturers of packaging machines into preconfigured devices. Installing, connecting, detecting – the user does not have to deal with extensive operating instructions. The sensor variant featuring IO-Link makes it possible to parameterize the sensor according to operating conditions, e.g. for different packages.Conveying side-by-side, differentiating from each other, counting and detecting continuously – the solution is DeltaPac from SICK.