If you need to retrofit encoders onto old motors that presently have analog tachogenerators mounted on them, what should you use?

This blog will discuss why magnetic encoders overcome limitations and provide superior reliability in metals applications.

This blog will introduce various metals industry encoder applications and discuss typical challenges.  These challenges can be grouped into Environmental Challenges and Mechanical Duty Challenges.

This blog will introduce various metals industry encoder applications and the environmental and mechanical challenges they present.

Understanding Metals Industry Position Feedback Devices

This blog will introduce the three main types of position feedback devices from a historical perspective and discuss their uses in metals processes.

Speed Sensors

The Dictionary.com definition for Tachometer:

[ta-kom-i-ter, tuh-]

any of various instruments for measuring or indicating velocity or speed

So tachometers are speed measurement devices.  Their use in the metals industry goes back decades to the development of analog drive control systems.  

This blog will introduce the three main types of speed feedback devices from a historical perspective and discuss their uses in metals processes.

They are called many things: tachometers, tachos, tach-generators, pulse generators, resolvers, encoders, incremental encoders, absolute encoders, rotopulsers, selsyns, the list seemingly goes on and on. How does the metals industry electrical professional know what all these devices are and what kinds he has or needs? In the first of a three-part series, this blog will introduce the main metals industry rotary motion sensors, speed and position.

Bearings and seals are the main failure items for any encoder in a mill environment today. Lip seals, shaft seals and bearings all have static surfaces in contact with rotating surfaces. Gradually these seal points will wear or break down and allow material to pass into the encoder housing and contaminate optics and short electronics. As bearing surfaces wear, radial movement increases at both seal surfaces, accelerating failure and causing optical path misalignment. Eliminating the bearings and seals from your encoder applications will drastically lengthen the life of your feedback devices.

Overview