| Dear Reader,
Welcome to the 85th issue of our BEI Newsletter. As
you can see we have a new look. In honor of Spring and the sense of renewal that comes
with the seasons, we are presenting a new face to our readers. In fact, not only are we
changing our look, we're also changing our name. Take a look at the logo at the top of
this newsletter and you'll see that we are now doing business as BEI Sensors. Read our
feature article below to find out more about that and what it means to
you.
|
| BEI Sensors - A New
Beginning |
|
|
| Getting Started |
With our new name and organization I thought it would be interesting to see what has been
said, over time, about new undertakings.
"You can learn new things at any time in your life if you're willing to be a
beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you." - Barbara Sher
"Every day is a new
beginning. Treat it that way. Stay away from what might have been, and look at what can be." - Marsha Petrie
Sue
"First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans;
then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your
imagination." - Napolean Hill
"It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than
anything else, will determine its successful outcome." - William James
"The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings." - David Weinbaum
"Every day is a fresh beginning; every morn is the world made
new." - Sarah Chauncey Woolsey |
| Can You Solve This?
|
|
You'll be happy to know that we'll be keeping one of our most popular newsletter items,
the "Can You Solve This?" section. Over the years this has been a source of a lot of
good, real-world applications advice and I often get email thanks from installers, designers,
operators and service personnel for the insights and tricks in this column. The only
improvement is that I'll now start including examples from our expanded product lines. So
. . . here we go!
The product in question was a rotary potentiometer and it all started with a phone
call. It seems that the customer was finding a very limited life on the pots he was using
in his temperature controllers. They seemed to work fine most of the time, but they
seemed to fail especially when he was working with hot process liquids. Since the pots
were rated up to 125 C and he wasn't anywhere near that temperature, he was wondering if he had
a faulty product?
Answer: There were really two clues as to what was going on. First, the
potentiometer was being used to drive a heating element and second there seemed to be a
temperature dependency. Pots are design to be operated primarily as voltage dividers,
meaning that they are not intended as current regulating devices. Since he was driving a
heater, he was using the product as a rheostat or a variable current device which meant he was
driving a lot of current through the wiper of the pot. At higher process temperatures he
was driving more current and this was leading to the failures. As it turns out, by specifying a
different potentiometer element technology and using a load limiting resistor on the wiper, we
were able to provide a solution for his application.
|
| Saving Time |
|
Every year in the Spring and again in the Autumn, many countries, states and provinces
around the world undergo a ritual of adjusting their clocks by an hour (or two in some
cases). Generally the change is from "Standard" time to "Daylight Saving" time and vice
versa.
At the same time that we make this change, invariably someone will pipe up, "Why to we do
this every year? Why can't we just stay on the same time all year around?" As it
turns out, there really is a legitimate answer to that question. And yes it does involve
farmers, and railroads, and saving electricity and actually making it safer for you to drive
your car.
There are a lot of web sites dedicated to explaining the Daylight Saving phenomena, but
one of the better ones can be found at this
link. So now, when Autumn rolls around and someone you know asks, "Why do we do
this?" you'll have a better answer.
|
|
|
I hope you all enjoyed the new, improved and expanded newsletter and that you found
something of interest. Remember to be on the lookout for the new BEI Sensors as we look
forward to giving you more of what you need; more products and more service.
Sincerely,
Scott Orlosky
|
|
|
| Product
Spotlight |
|
|
The BEI Sensors' Model 8360 non-contacting rotary position sensor features 360 degree
continuous rotational capabilities in a low-profile, through-hole package. This device
provides an ideal solution for applications where space and sensor mounting flexibility are
critical. To read more and look at a product specification sheet, just click on the
picture above.
|
| Quick Links |
|
What's New
Product Information
|
|
|
