Hello, I am an engineer with a brake manufacturer.
I design disk brakes for elevators.

To confirm the opening and closing of the brake pad, we install a lever-like mechanism to magnify the movements of the pad and detect those movements with microswitches and proximity sensors. However, the movements are too minor (0.5 mm) to detect stably.

This system is very important because false detection may lead to accidents, and we need to increase the reliability of detection. Do you have any solution for this?

Thank you for your inquiry.

Microswitches and proximity sensors have a dead band between on and off states (i.e., hysteresis). Therefore, it is very difficult for them to stably detect 0.5 mm slight movements.

In fact, many people experience this problem, being forced to construct mechanisms to magnify slight movements or having to consume excessive time for mounting and adjustment of microswitches and proximity sensors.

However, there is no need to give up!

Metrol precision positioning switches are precision mechanical devices. They consist of precision components and are free of hysteresis. So, they can detect slight movements as small as 0.1 mm without fail by directly touching the brake pad.

Hello, I am an engineer with a maker of semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

We use optical fiber sensors for the glass substrate alignment mechanism (precision positioning) used in vacuum film forming equipment for FPDs, but we have some difficulties because they require photo-irradiation via a viewport from outside the system and its processing costs are high.

I have heard Metrol switches can achieve good performance in XY stage precision positioning outside vacuum equipment. Do you have switches usable within vacuum equipment?

Thank you for your inquiry.
Leave alignment inside vacuum film forming equipment for FPDs in a high vacuum to precision positioning switches.

The Metrol vacuum-compatible positioning switch is a precision mechanical device that does not use electronic elements.
It consists of low outgas components and is usable in a 10^-5 Pa high vacuum.
Viewports are no longer necessary after incorporating the switch into the alignment mechanism, so considerable cost reduction is possible.
More and more major semiconductor device manufacturers have employed Metrol positioning switches for vacuum systems such as sputtering devices, evaporators and etchers.
If you have any problems with positioning in a vacuum, please contact Metrol.

Hello, I am a user of sheet metal working equipment.

I engage in 0.5 mm-thick sheet metal working on spot welding lines. Although they happen very rarely, when feeding sheet metal on the line, double-feed errors do occur and these cause defective products.

Currently, to prevent this, we use contact displacement sensors with a repeatability of 1 μm and make them display the thickness to assess whether the number of fed sheets is one or more (if the thickness is greater than 0.5 mm, it is assessed as an error).

In this way, defective products have been prevented, but we have a problem because those sensors are too expensive.

Do you have any better solution?

Thank you for your inquiry.

Is value indication really necessary in the detection of sheet metal double feeding?
Contact displacement sensors with a display unit may be an over-engineered solution for positioning on automated lines.

Metrol precision positioning switches can achieve as high precision as contact displacement sensors at a low price without requiring expensive amplifiers.
High repeatability of 1 μm is achieved at a low price. With precision positioning switches, double feed detection of sheet metals with a combined thickness of only 0.7 mm can easily be done.

Please reconsider if value indication is really necessary for positioning on automated lines.