Conventional incremental encoder designs can have serious drawbacks for the end user, commodity supplier and system integrator. The wide variety of designs required for different applications, combined with the method of construction results in long delivery lead times for most versions. The DRS61 changes all that.

Packaging, printing, textile, paper converting machines and presses all have one thing in common - they all utilise rotary incremental encoders to control the speed and position of movements. The ability to exchange an encoder quickly in the event of product failure or damage is critical as a broken encoder can result in £10,000’s of lost production every hour. Users who stock the DRS61 programmable incremental encoder can for the first time, guarantee availability of a spare encoder to ensure lost production is kept to a minimum.

Conventional incremental encoder designs have serious drawbacks for the end user, commodity supplier and system integrator. The wide variety of designs required for different applications, combined with the method of construction results in long delivery lead times for most versions.

The conventional incremental encoder uses a glass code disc which has lines etched on it around the circumference. The number of lines etched onto the code disc determines the ppr (pulses per revolution) the encoder produces. As the code disc is at the heart of the encoder, in conventional designs the ppr cannot be changed once the encoder has been manufactured.

Typically most encoder manufacturers offer 1000’s of different encoder versions with different pulse counts, to enable the customer to choose a product to match the application. The consequence of this is that stocks of pre-manufactured encoders are low and in most cases product is manufactured to the customers order. The result is a long delivery lead time which can prove disastrous for the machine user in the event of a breakdown.

In many cases the problem has been greatly increased by the customer removing encoders from their stock lists. Due to the multitude of product variations and the overall reliability of encoders (MTBF typically 100,000 hours) each encoder type tends to be used very seldom. In an ever more competitive market, all companies are seeking to reduce costs. Therefore, in many cases Stores Managers have reduced the stock of spare encoders to a level whereby spares are not held for some machines.

The new DRS61 from SICK|Stegmann, addresses the need of the Stores Manager to keep his stock holding to a minimum, whilst at the same time addressing the need of the Maintenance Engineer to replace a damaged encoder quickly. The DRS61 does not work in the conventional way. Instead, the ppr of the encoder can be programmed via a PC based programming tool. The Maintenance Engineer can take the raw encoder from stock, connect it to his PC via a programming lead and using the Windows compatible programming software, he can tell the encoder exactly how many pulses per revolution to produce within the range of 1-8192.

The days of waiting for a replacement encoder to be manufactured while your machine is inoperable are over. By holding the DRS61 on stock, when you have a product failure, take the DRS61 from your stock, connect it to your PC and 30 seconds later you have a replacement for fitting to your machine.