By ITV Technical Staff Sensors are used for many different tasks in an industrial environment. From limit, proximity, and photoelectric switches to pressure, flow and temperature control devices, sensors can be used to easily detect and control any element of control system, whether it's a hardwired control system or a PLC-based system.
Major problems can easily result from improper installation.
For instance, a proximity switch is designed to detect a proper size target at a particular distance. If the target is reduced in size, the proximity switch will detect the target at a much closer distance. This type of improper sensor application can create difficult problems that are hard to troubleshoot. Problems can also arise from the improper use of inductive proximity switches to detect nonmetal materials, such as granulars and fluids. These procedures are important, because problems like the ones just mentioned are expensive.