Sensors Magazine articles from December 2001

Sensors Magazine archives from December 2001

Electronics, Poultry, and Greater Gifts. (Editorial).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Sensors staff has been working on a few year-end gifts to you for several months now. First is the addition of a full range of career assistance to Sensors Online (at www.sensorsmag.com/sensorjobs). If your 2002 wish list includes a...

Superconductive Components Inc. (Big Deals).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Superconductive Components Inc. (Columbus, 0H) has been awarded a patent from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for a new process that joins two strongly linked superconductors using a melt-processing technique that removes size and shape...

GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc. (Agreements, Acquisitions, Etc.).(various articles on acquisitions and contracts)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc. (Charlottesville, VA), has acquired VMIC (Huntsville, AL), a manufacturer of single-board PC computers (CPUs), communications and reflective memory networks, SCSI host adapters, gigabit Ethernet, and data...

Photoacoustic Technique Detects, Analyzes Airborne Bioparticles. (Research & Developments).(research at Eastern Washington University)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... A team of chemists and engineers led by Dr. Jeanne Rudzki Small at Eastern Washington University is investigating the use of photoacoustics to detect airborne bioparticles. Part of the impetus is, of course, the anthrax threat hovering over the...

Bead Chamber, Photon Counter Make Fast Analysis of Spoiled Food. (Research & Developments).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... When restaurant inspectors and food processors collect food and beverage samples to test for salmonella, clostridium, E. coli, and other microorganisms that can cause serious digestive upsets, the turnaround time for the results is at least 24...

Luminescence Reveals Contamination in Food and Agricultural Products. (Research & Developments).(new test from Europrobe S.A.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... A new test for listeria and salmonella contamination in agricultural and food products does its work in less than 24 hours rather than the week required by conventional methods. Developed by the French firm Europrobe SA, the LUMIprobe 24 is...

Web Picks.(websites reviewed)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... December, time for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice. Traditionally a time to stop, reflect on the past year, and plan ahead for the next. This year has been pretty rough, for a variety of reasons, so I'd like to suggest a visit...

Best of Sensors Expo New Product Awards and More. (Special Report).
December 1, 2001... Just three weeks after our nation faced one of the worst disasters in its history, Sensors Expo and Conference Fall 2001 went on as planned in Philadelphia October 1-4. Our sincere hope was that somehow this small act would not only address the...

A Perspective on Data Analysis: Now that you have it, what are you going to do with it? (Sensor Technology And Design).
December 1, 2001... You've spent considerable time and effort developing an architecture for collecting much needed experimental or operational data. Your goal is to discover new relationships and relevant information about a process from the data you've collected...

Magnetostrictive Position Sensors Enter the Automotive Market: New low-cost sensors are moving magnetostrictive technology from the factory floor to your vehicle. (Putting Sensors To Work).
December 1, 2001... The automotive industry, and, specifically, shock absorber manufacturers, have long been attracted by magnetostrictive sensors' noncontact design, ability to be mounted internally, high performance, absolute measurement, and adaptable output....

Reader Tips.
December 1, 2001... Maximizing Your Web Searches We thank our fellow engineers for submitting tips on how We they use the Internet more effectively in their research. rewarded participants whose tips we selected with a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com....

Why the Internet Has Disappointed Engineers: The Internet places phenomenal amounts of information at your fingertips. Unfortunately, only a few companies have perfected the mechanics of delivering what you want, when you want it.
December 1, 2001... In the bad old days, there was paper, and we did everything by hand. Engineers and designers maintained libraries of paper catalogs and searched them laboriously to find the parts and components they needed to complete projects. And it was a...

Sharing Data from Behind a Firewall. (Protect Internal Networks).
December 1, 2001... The Internet has made sharing company data with colleagues vendors, and customers around the world a standard way of doing business. It's also made data security one of our top concerns. So how can you have it both ways? The Web is a term...

An Introduction to Piezoelectric Motors: When precision outweighs strength on your desirability scale, a piezoelectric motor might be just what you need. (Sensor Technology And Design).
December 1, 2001... The ultrasonic piezoelectric motor's faster response times, higher precision, hard brake with no backlash, high power-to-weight ratio, and smaller packaging envelope more than compensate for the lack of brute horsepower and speed associated...

New Vision System Inspects Polished Optical Fiber: Machine vision technology has recently matured to the point where it can accurately find and measure fiber-end defects quickly, objectively, and repeatably. (Putting Sensors To Work).
December 1, 2001... FiberInspect is a new special-purpose machine vision system designed to automatically detect and measure scratches, cracks, spots, and boundary defects that form on optical fibers during the polishing process. Manufacturing-Related...

An Introduction to Fiber-Optic Sensors. (Sensor Technology and Design).
December 1, 2001... Fiber-optic sensors are becoming the first choice for applications characterized by minimal space, adverse environment, or EMI and RFI. Why? Part of the answer lies in knowing what a fiber-optic sensor is A fiber-optic sensor system...

Humidity Sensor Components. (Readers' Choice).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Humirel, Inc., Phoenix, AZ, offers capacitive humidity sensor components in through hole (HS1100 and HS1101) and surface-mount (IITS2010SMI) configurations. The HTS2010SMD includes in NTC temperature sensor for more accurate dew point or...

DC/AC Clamp-On Probes. (Product News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... AP-10, AP-500, and AP-1000 Universal Claimp-On current probes from F.W. Bell, Orlando, Fl, use a magnetic circuit design to enable accurate measurements from 0-1500 A in narrow, hard-to-reach places such as crowded engine compartment and back...

Barrel Sensing Kit. (Product News).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Acu-trac barrel level sensing kit from SSI Technologies, Janesville, WI, uses an ultrasonic level sensor and programmable operating software to provide automated reporting of barrel level for underfill/overfill conditions. Using a...

DA and Control Modules. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... OMR Series modules from Omega Engineering Corp., Stamford, CT, convert anlog input signals to engineering units and transmit them in ASCII format to any host computer via 2-wire RS 485. Modules perform signal conditioning, scaling,...

Encoders with Fieldbus Interfaces. (Product News).(TRABA Inc. encoders)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... TRABA, Inc., Lawrenceville NJ, offers the Posital family of encoders with fieldbus interfaces, including CANbus interface for CANopen and DeviceNet applications as well as Profibus-DP and Interbus. Encoders are divided into 2 classes such as...

RF Coaxial Adapter Kits. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... To mate-calibration equipment with a type N connector to virtually any device with a different series of connector, Tru-Connector Corp., Peabody, MA, offers the user-customizable Type N adapter kit. The kit lets you select from 4-10 connectors...

Hazardous Area Temperature Transmitter. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... Turck Inc., Minneapolis, MN, offer its Multimodul. MK34-11Ex0 universal temperature transmitter that accepts intrinsically safe thermocouple, RTD or mV inputs and provides a linear 4-20 mA output for control equipment in nonhazardous-areas....

General-Purpose Accelerometer. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... Engineered with micromachined components, the LCM-100 from Jewell Instruments, LLC Manchester, NH, is a 0.5-4 G accelerometer suited for applications requiring 500 G shock resistance and up to 500 Hz bandwith. Features include FRO of [+ or -]5...

DSO with CAN Analysis. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... The Model DL7200 Signal Explorer from Yokogawa Corp. of America, Newman, CA, is a 4-channel, 2 Gsp. 500 MHz bandwidth digital oscilloscope with the ability to trigger on and analyze CAN bus signal. The DSO features a memory length of up to 16...

Wireless Monitoring Capability. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... Bently Nevada Corp., Minden, NV, offers the RF Bridge, a collection of RF components that add wireless communication capabilities to its Trendmaster 2000 machinery monitoring system. Using a combination of base, repeater, and remote units, the...

Cable Assemblies for Accelerometers. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... Model 6923 assemblies from Endevco Corp., San Juan Capistrano, CA, interface with various industrial accelerometers having MIL-C-5015C 2-pin threaded connectors. The Model 6823M9 cable assembly incorporates 20 AWG twisted-pair conductors...

VESEL Arrays. (Product News).(Honeywell)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... For manufacturers of parallel optical interconnect high-speed data transceivers and other applications, Stabilaze 850 nm VCSEL 12-element arrays from Honeywell VCSEL Products Div., Richardson, TX, are stabilized at the wafer level. The...

Crystal-Type Pressure Transducers. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... Models 950 and P104 crystal-type pressure transducers from Columbia Research Laboratories, Inc., Woodlyn, PA, combine a piezoceramic sensing element with a solid-state impedance matching circuit or amplifier in one small package. A variety of...

Photoelectric Mounting System. (Product News).(Ifm Efector)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Ifm Efector, Inc., Exton, PA, introduces a family of mounting brackets for its photoelectric sensors in which the sensor bracket is attached to a metal rod with a patented clamp, allowing assembly in seconds. The sensor can be raised, lowered,...

Load Cell Simulators. (Product News).(CX Series from Interface, Inc)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Single-Step and Multi-Step models in the CX Series from Interface, Inc., Scottsdale, AZ, verify performance of load cell indicators with an accuracy of 0.0015% of setting and temperature coefficient of Click 244

Real-Time Driver. (Product News).(Data Translation, Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Data Translation, Inc., Marlboro, MA, offers an RTX driver and library function calls for its DT300 and DT3010 Series PCI DA boards; the driver, along with RTX 5.0 from VenturCom, lets you perform real-time DA. The driver allows deployment of...

Low-Power 8-Channel ADCs. (Product News).(Linear Technology Corp)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The 10-bit LTC 1852 and 12-bit LTC 1853 8-channel ADCs from Linear Technology Corp., Milpitas, CA, draw 3 mW from a 3V supply, sample at 400 Ksps with a 5 V supply, and include a flexible multiplexer. The models can be configured for different...

Label Sensor. (Product News).(Pepperl+Fuchs, Inc)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The ML-19 Series sensors from Pepperl+Fuchs, Inc., Twinsburg, OH, detect virtually any label at speeds up to 10,000 labels/s including embossed foil. Calibration options include the single-turn version for general-purpose use or the 20-turn...

Versatile Signal Conditioner. (Product News).(R.C. Electronics, Inc)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... The Dynamics 4290 accelerometer/microphone and differential amplifier from R.C. Electronics, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA, can be interfaced with sensors requiring current and high bias voltage excitation and configured as a differential DC/AC...

Wireless Vibration Sensor. (Product News).(Techkor Instrumentation)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... Designed for industrial environments, the Model M9E-RF-1-50G from Techkor Instrumentation, Middletown, PA, is a CBM vibration data transmitter that contains a piezoelectric acclerometer, DSP, and wireless transceiver. The accelerometer has a...

OEM Photoelectric Sensors. (Product News).(Baumer Electric Ltd.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2001... For counting, measuring, and positioning, Baumer Electric, Ltd., Southington, CT, offers 14mm diffuse, background suppression, retroreflective, and throughbeam Series 14 sensors for noncontact detection of an array of target. The compact...

[0] General-Purpose Accelerometer. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... The Model 8312A K-Beam Series from Kistler Instrument Corp., Amherst, NY, makes steady-state or low-level, low-frequency measurements with a resolution of 540 [micro]g broadand. The capacitive DC-measurement units are available in 2, 10, and 25...

Fingerprint Sensor. (Product News).
December 1, 2001... The MBF110 from Fujitsu Microelectronics, Inc., San Jose, CA, is a solid-state fingerprint sensor designed for embedded mobile computing systems and physical-access authentication systems. Featuring a 300 by 300 pixel sensor array that produces...

Wish List.
December 1, 2001... Rain Event Sensor We are Singapore polytechnic students doing our final-year project (home automation), using a lot of temperature, rain, light, and humidity sensors. We are currently looking for a rain sensor that would respond to the...