Application Solution: Baumer Electric's OZDK 10 Contrast Sensor Solves Bar Code Detection Difficulties
The Problem:
A customer was concerned with identifying the start of a bar code on a continuous label for a cutting process. They wanted to identify the first line of the code only and receive an output for each bar in the code. They had been using a standard diffuse photoelectric sensor with unsatisfactory results. The standard diffuse sensor would either miss the initial bar or detect multiple bars within the same code, causing miscuts.
The Solution: Baumer Electric's OZDK 10 Laser Contrast Sensor
This sensor is designed to recognize color and contrast changes. When the sensor was mounted about 20 mm away from the bar code, the beam spot was just below 1.5 mm in diameter. The 1.5 mm spot allowed the sensor to ignore the gap between each bar, thereby triggering only once per code. The sensor is in a “light operate” configuration, meaning that output is “on” for the white-colored background and “off” when the black bar code comes into view.
Benefit to User:
Although the customer could have purchased a high-end bar code reader, this would have resulted in a significant cost increase and a decrease in the speed at which they could run the cutting process. The fast response and repeatability and relatively low cost made the OZDK 10 a perfect solution. The small 10 x 27 x 14 mm size was also a plus.
– Taken from an Application Story by Thomas A. Kinney, Field Sales Engineer for Baumer Electric
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