Miniature Photoelectric Sensors for Perfect Printed Circuit Boards Detection – Series ML8

Printed circuit boards are inherent in the majority of machines and products people use every day. From household appliances to consumer electronics and even the cars we drive; electronic systems are used. These systems include one or more printed circuit boards. Reliable and precise handling of printed circuit boards throughout the manufacturing cycle is critical and contributes directly to the increased efficiency of the production process.

Current industry sensing solutions for printed circuit boards detection include:

• Ultrasonic sensors
• Light guide/ light curtains
• Simple photoelectric sensors

However, a truly effective solution for printed circuit board detection and handling applications has been lacking. Now, diverse sensing applications for printed circuit board manufacturing can be solved by using two small, cost-effective diffuse mode sensors from Pepperl+Fuchs.

The ML8-8-HGU miniature photoelectric sensor precisely detects the edges of circuit boards with its narrow, elongated light spot. Using background suppression, the sensor also facilitates precise positioning of the circuit boards.

Even more powerful is the miniature photoelectric sensor ML8-8-H. A 'World first', the sensor operates with numerous light spots, and is the first photoelectric sensor with background suppression specifically designed for printed circuit board detection.

The sensing method based on numerous light spots achieves a superior background suppression - , which safely suppresses the strongly reflecting background from aluminum carriers located a few millimeters beyond the sensing range.

Both miniature photoelectric sensors ignore indentations, holes and components on the circuit board and their performance is not impaired by variations in color and texture.  The printed circuit board sensors are available with an application-typical, fixed detection range of 30 or 50 mm, so that they can be simply and quickly integrated into the application without operating expense. This excludes errors during set up and servicing and also eliminates the the possibility of tampering, thus ensuring overall system safety. These photoelectric sensors are perfect for all applications where printed circuit boards are produced and processed.