Month: October 2016

October 21, 2016

What Can I Do with My Intrinsic Safety Rated Position Sensor?

Well that’s a fine question indeed! And the answer, like the answer to many interesting new technologies, is that it depends mostly on your imagination, and your budget!  Here’s just a few of the applications we’ve already been either designed into, or proposed as a solution.

Applications For The CPI High Endurance Draw Wire Sensor

Over a 15 year period since our draw wire linear position sensor was introduced, it has evolved, improved, and now enjoys wide acceptance in high endurance, long stroke hydraulic applications across dozens of industries and military applications.

Navy Vehicles – Navy subcontractors have used customized versions of our LVDT Hydraulic linear position sensor for rudder control on sea slicesensor for sea-going applications on surface ships and submarines.  While some of these uses are proprietary, you can read here about our use of smart cylinders on the navy’s interdiction vessel, the Sea Slice.

Offshore and Subsea Drilling, Mining and Refining Operations – Large scale hydraulic cylinders used in heave compensation systems and riser tensioners are typical high-endurance applications.  Our subsea rated sensor can also monitor pre-charge pressure in hydraulic accumulators like those commonly used in blowout preventers at the well head. For applications above the surface or on the drilling platform, our SL 1490MS hybrid sensor is fully ATEX Intrinsic safety rated.

Oil & Gas – Rig raiser systems now enjoy much improved reliability, as our internal mount sensors replace external draw wires on the mast cylinder.

Commuter Trains – Telescoping pneumatic cylinders on commuter trains required sensors for a closed-loop feedback system to assist in rail car coupling.

Onshore Mining – Remote hydraulic valve actuators can be reliably monitored with use of our external-mount 1M sensor, which easily mounts onto any NFPA cylinder.

In-Plant Chemical Processing – External draw wire applications on linear and valve actuators include hazardous chemical, paper processing, as well as oil refinery installations.  Internal applications range from hydraulic roller tensioners in paper manufacturing to telescoping cylinders used in pharmaceutical processing.

Telescoping Cylinders – CPI sensors are one of the only high endurance linear position sensor solutions in the world for this class of hydraulics. Our sensors have the ability to mount either inside or outside the cylinder, in any type of hydraulic fluid or gas atmosphere, with stroke lengths available up to 15m.

Infrastructure, Hydroelectric – Dam gate actuators are typically long-stroke.  In some instances, these are oriented horizontally – this is where our draw wire solution overcomes deflection issues associated with long rod-type sensors.

Specifying Your Sensor

CPI works closely with each engineering team to understand and define the particular needs of your sensor application.  While some sensors can be used “off the shelf”, we expect to fully customize and qualify your solution for you, as partners in your success.

Please call our engineering team today at 973-887-9400 and bookmark http://www.cpi-nj.com 

 

Original content posted on https://www.cpi-nj.com/blog/what-can-i-do-with-my-intrinsic-safety-rated-position-sensor/

 

 

October 17, 2016

Reinventing Draw-Wire Sensors – Introduction

Perhaps one of the most memorable moments of my career at CPI happened over a decade ago, when CPI was first asked to produce a robust hydraulic position sensor for a large well known maker of construction vehicles and equipment. In their larger machines, rod-type sensors were being used in the control system of long stroke hydraulics but their installation was problematic, and they often failed in rough conditions.

After many months of engineering and testing CPI produced the first version of our SL series sensors. Our new sensor was durable, accurate, and used a well accepted linear position measurement principle, the draw wire.  In our solution however, the draw wire mechanism was completely re-conceived and re-engineered for harsh duty and improved accuracy. The mechanical rotations of the draw wire were ingeniously coupled to an LVDT transducer system so the whole solution was non-contacting and virtually immune to all the environmental hazards, temperature and EMI your average 15 ton wheel loader runs into. The system was so unique and unlike anything that existed that we were able to receive several patents from it.

Proudly we demonstrated our achievement to our client, certain that we were onto something big here. Do you know what they said?   (wait for it….)

“Not high-tech enough”.

Maybe you’ve experienced this: one of those moments when words fail you and you’re quite sure your head will explode shortly.  You see, having witnessed the amount of research into material science, alloy’s, precision engineering, and component testing that went into our sensor, all I could think was “well define high-tech!”.

And so now a decade later, having seen our unique sensor gain wide acceptance in applications more diverse that we ever imagined (including construction vehicles), I’m calm enough to explain in this upcoming series, just exactly what constitutes “high-tech” in our hardened linear position sensor solution, and more importantly, why it outperforms every other sensor technology in the world for extreme duty, long stroke, or subsea applications.

 

Original content posted on https://www.cpi-nj.com/blog/reinventing-draw-wire-sensors/

 

October 7, 2016

CPI Switches, Bring The Disabled Some Fishes…

handicappedfishingpicture

In the ever expanding category of interesting applications that our waterproof switches find their way into, we must add this one: the motorized fishing reel for the handicapped.

Enter the Elec-tra-mate Corporation of Greensboro North Carolina, pioneers in the design and manufacturing of electric fishing reels since the 1970’s. While their primary business was recreational and commercial  fishing tackle they were approached by the state of Florida in 2000 to build something different.

“We had thought about building a special reel for the handicapped for years, but we really didn’t think anyone was interested…” says Carl T. Hoffman, current President of the Elec-tra-mate Corp. “But the state representative explained that over 120,000 folks become handicapped in Florida every year, many of them young, so we came out with our first reel designed for the handicapped that same year”.

fishing reel with cpi momentary contact switchThe reel designs are essentially DC motor drive systems coupled exclusively to Penn reels, as these are one of the few manufacturers of reels whose gears can hold up to motor cranking.

Many of the handicapped fishing reel configurations are of course semi-custom depending on your disability. For folks without the use of an arm, Elec-tra-mate offers the 452-PTH Push Button reel.

the 452-PTH has the power to easily overcome largemouth bass, small mouth bass, brim, crappie and other freshwater species without the need to assist the motor by cranking. It is operated through one of CPI’s momentary contact switches, the B7151-18, a sealed pendant switch design. This switch is completely waterproof and is our “low force” variation, providing easy depression and a great tactile feel for the one armed angler while handling enough current to land fish up to 50 lbs!

Fishing for a Waterproof Momentary Switch?

CPI’s vast line of pendant style momentary and maintained contact switches could be just what you’re looking for. Completely sealed and truly waterproof, these are the switches you turn to when the other guy’s just don’t hold up.

See our full waterproof switch line at https://www.cpi-nj.com/waterproof-switches/momentary-switches/

This content was originally posted on https://www.cpi-nj.com/blog/cpi-switches-bring-the-disabled-some-fishes/