New Omron colour sensors are easy to use and keenly priced

Our two new products, the E3X-DACLR easy-teach colour sensor and the FQ-CLR vision colour sensor, have been designed specifically to meet the need for reliable, easy-to-use and cost-effective colour detection systems within the packaging industry. Typical applications for these versatile new sensors include checking the colours of the bottle caps, verifying that the correct colour of packaging material has been used and checking that labels and other colour markings have been printed correctly.

The E3X-DACLR colour sensor can detect either a single colour or up to four colours. All versions of the E3X-DACLR are easy to set up with a choice of one-touch teaching for colour verification or two-point teaching for good and bad product samples.

These sensors are very competitively priced when compared with traditional colour sensors and are configured as two-part units to maximise their versatility. The compact sensing head is easily accommodated even where space is limited and a separate amplifier unit is linked to the sensing head via a dual fibre-optic cable.

The new FQ-CLR colour vision sensor is ideally suited to applications that involve variable inspection positions or combined inspection tasks. This single-piece sensor with integral lighting is available for single colour detection or for the detection of up to 32 colours and a combination of inspection tasks.

A key benefit is that the user can accurately define the inspection area within the image captured by the sensor. This makes the FQ-CLR sensor an ideal choice for the inspection of targets of varying size and design in, for example, packaging applications.

Like the E3X-DACLR, the FQ-CLR is fast and easy to set up. It offers a choice of object teaching with good samples and user-defined tolerance levels or of two-point teaching with good and bad samples. As an alternative to performing colour processing and evaluation in the sensor itself, these operations can be performed by external devices, using the RGB values that the sensor delivers via its integral Ethernet port. The sensor can be programmed either using the PC programming software or a removable programming device.

For the convenience of specifiers and users, both the E3X-DACLR and FQ-CLR are supplied in the form of complete kits, with a single order number, which contain all of the components needed to install and set up the sensing system.

The E3X-DACLR sensor kit includes a sensor head with fibre-optic cable, the amplifier, a connecting cable and a quick-start guide. The FQ-CLR sensor kits are made up of a sensor, I/O cable, Ethernet cable and quick-start guide plus, in the case of 32-colour versions, a touch-finder programming device and its associated power supply.