Dear Reader,
2011 is off to a decent start at least in the manufacturing sector. Most of our readership works in this segment, so hopefully you are all seeing a return to something that resembles a normal business environment.
Regardless of your situation, BEI Sensors is here to help by giving you high value in the marketplace. Our high reliability products mean low cost of ownership and that means savings. Give us a call for your sensor needs and see what we can do for you.
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| Something for everyone |
 Imagine that you're working on an installation and suddenly you realize that you're missing some connectors, or some cable, or you need a signal conditioner to turn your five volt signal into a 24 volt signal. Where do you turn?
Try the BEI Sensors eCommerce site. We've collected the most common accessory items used with encoders and put them together in an easy-to-navigate format. Whether it's mechanical: couplings and adapters or electrical: power supplies and displays you just might find that little extra element you need to get the job done. And best of all we take credit cards so you can complete the transaction directly on line.
So take a moment, click the picture and browse the store. Be sure to check in periodically as we add new items.
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| Looking Good |
 "Some people have been kind enough to call me a fine artist. I've always called myself an illustrator. I'm not sure what the difference is. All I know is that whatever type of work I do, I try to give it my very best. Art has been my life."
"I'm not going to be caught around here for any fool celebration. To hell with birthdays!"
"Right from the beginning, I always strived to capture everything I saw as completely as possible."
"The '20s ended in an era of extravagance, sort of like the one we're in now. There was a big crash, but then the country picked itself up again, and we had some great years. Those were the days when America believed in itself. I was happy and proud to be painting it."
"The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure. So, you see, they're always looking ahead to something new and exciting. The secret is not to look back."
Most people know Norman Rockwell from his paintings rather than his philosophy. A quick read of his biography lets us know that he was a very talented and hard-working man from the start. He earned his first commission at the age of 15 and by 21 he was able to set up his own studio in New Rochelle, N.Y. Over the course of his career he illustrated over 300 covers for The Saturday Evening Post and contributed posters to the war effort during the Second World War that raised over 130 million dollars - a substantial sum at the time. To read more about this man and his life just click the illustration above. |
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| Can You Solve It? |
This was a tricky situation that we ran into a few months back, that points up the need to consider all elements of a system design. The customer called in and was having trouble with a particular assembly operation that was controlled by his encoder. The encoder controlled an arm that moved quickly for a coarse positioning operation and then slowly for fine positioning, with the coarse position speed at about 10 times the fine position operation.
The problem seemed to be that the counter was missing pulses and the customer was able to isolate it to the coarse position movement. He was feeling pretty frustrated and only had a week to complete the commissioning of this equipment for customer buy-off. What was going on and more importantly was there a quick fix?
Answer: There are actually quite a few possibilities depending on the resolution of the encoder, bandwidth of the counter and so on, however in this case we determined that the issue was cabling - yes cabling. He had used a general purpose data cable and, as it turned out, he had a pretty significant cable run on this equipment, over 100 feet by time he had routed it through cable trays, etc. The cable had a fairly high capacitance and at high speed the square wave pulses out of the encoder looked pretty rounded due to capacitive loading. He was operating at 5 volts and some of the pulses were being missed by his counter at the high speed. We shipped him a reel of high quality, low capacitance shielded cable that was designed specifically for encoders and the problem went away.
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| Trees for All |
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 Most everyone has seen a tree or grove of trees in their life that is striking for some reason. Either the arrangement is particularly aesthetic, the tree has a fantastic shape, or it's a particularly large or impressive specimen for the type.
If you click on the picture, you'll see a collection of trees that are notable for their age, size, location or for some bit of history. This collection is from all over the world - so you just might have a chance to visit one of these marvels sometime. Enjoy the tour!
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THANKS FOR READING
Thanks for reading through the February newsletter from BEI Sensors. I hope you had some fun and learned a little something new. As always, let us know what we can do to help with your sensor needs. We're only a phone call or email away.
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| Product Spotlight |
MSHA Encoder  If you've got a tough job to do and you work in the mining industry then take a look at this encoder. BEI Sensors has the only MSHA rated and listed encoder available that is designed to work in that environment. Click the picture to see a PDF specification. |
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