Different control system topologies require different interfaces. In practical terms it is not cost effective to manufacture encoders and sensors with every different electrical interface integrated into the product. Therefore there is still a substantial role within factory automation for interface adapters to convert signals from one format to another.

SICK (UK) has formed a partnership with MKS (Maschine Kontoll Systeme) in Rieslingen, Germany to enable UK customers to gain easy access to the interface adapters MKS manufacture.

The addition of the MKS product range to the offering of SICK (UK) provides customers with a one stop shop for their encoder/sensor requirements irrespective of the interface requirements of their machines. Too often component suppliers blame each other when components prove to be incompatible, leaving the customer stuck in the middle. In contrast, the MKS and SICK products have been tested together by our UK applications department enabling the customer to have confidence in a working solution supplied by 1 source.

The addition of the MKS product range also brings panel mounted displays to the SICK (UK) portfolio. These products range from simple displays to enable the customer to visualise the position of the encoder or sensor, to more complex devices incorporating signal conversion for transmission onto a host PLC or control system.

Products include: SSI to analogue/RS232/RS485/Parallel converters, frequency to voltage converters to enable incremental encoders to replace tacho generators, TTL to HTL converters, encoder splitters to distribute encoder signals to multiple PLC’s/Drives, Sine/Cosine encoder interpolators, Encoder dividers to reduce the output frequency for low performance PLC counter cards in as well as SSI, parallel, incremental and analogue input display modules.

All products are fully compatible with the SICK|Stegmann range of encoders and the SICK range of sensors.