Belt edge detection in 100 degree C hazardous location
I am in need of some type of technology that would detect a belt edge for tracking of the belt. This belt runs in a steam filled oven with an average temperature of 100 deg. Celcius.
I need some type of sensor or system to look through the steam and detect belt edge. Then that signal needs to be sent to some type of controller on the outside of the oven to activate the belt tracking system and send a signal back to our PLC for position monitoring.
Welcome to the forum.
Quite a few options come to mind. if it is steam atmosphere wouldn't it be clear inside? As I recall steam is invisible but water-vapor (below 100C) is not.
Given that, a reflective (polished) piece of stainless steel sticking out to the side under the belt and a tracking laser beamed through a glass window could check for reflectance. Sorta like the sun-tracker in a solar panel system.
You could use a grooved roller on the edge of the belt. Have a short arm holding the roller that is fixed to the spindle of a wire-wound potentiometer. I am sure that would be comfortable at 100C. A simple voltage divider network could feed a 0 to 10v signal to the PLC.
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