Essential Components

The Allen Bradley Condition Sensing product family offers exceptional control for automatic operation of machines and processes. As the link in an electrical circuit, condition sensors supply control intelligence at important values and either communicate information to automatically sequence equipment or provide a signal to operators for manual operation. When properly applied, Allen-Bradley Condition Sensing devices can lower your total operating costs by helping to improve processes and systems, reduce downtime, protect expensive equipment, and safeguard operators. Most devices are UL Listed, CSA Certified and CE Compliant.

By converting shaft rotation into electronic pulses, encoders are used to electronically monitor the position of a rotating shaft. The encoder's output pulses are counted and evaluated by a control unit to determine machine position and velocity, which provides exceptional accuracy and flexibility when controlling motion. The high mechanical and electronic operating speeds associated with optical encoders increase system speeds and accuracy, decrease cycle times, and boost overall productivity in the manufacturing environment.

In this globally competitive economy, one of our major goals is to help make you more competitive. That's why we have developed one of the broadest and most durable lines of limit switches in the industry. A limit switch is an electro-mechanical device that consists of an actuator mechanically linked to a set of contacts. When an object comes into contact with the actuator, the device operates the contacts to make or break an electrical connection. Limit switches are used in a variety of applications and environments because of their ruggedness, simple visible operation, ease of installation and reliability of operation.

Photoelectric sensing uses a beam of light to detect the presence or absence of an object. This technology is an ideal alternative to inductive proximity sensors when the required sensing distances are longer or when the item to be sensed is non-metal. Allen-Bradley photoelectric sensors are recognized as the most robust in the industrial automation marketplace. Designed for reliable operation, our leading products boast feature sets aimed to satisfy mainstream applications found in many industries such as material handling, packaging, food processing, transportation… the list goes on and on.

Allen-Bradley has one of the industry's widest selections of inductive, capacitive and ultrasonic proximity sensor models, all of which offer you no-touch object detection. The most commonly-used proximity sensor is the inductive type, which generates an electromagnetic field to sense metal objects passing close to its face. This is usually the easiest sensing technology to apply in applications where the metal object to be detected is within an inch or two of the sensor face. The diverse Allen-Bradley offering serves the full spectrum of customer needs, from light-duty packaging applications to the punishing environments on automotive welding equipment or the harsh wash downs in food processing plants.