Encoder & Sensor Applications

Introduction
Every application has its specific demands and requirements. The Phoenix America LLC line of sensors and encoders are designed specifically for the most difficult. While we have a list of ‘standard’ products, customers receive the most value when Phoenix America Inc. custom develops a solution specifically for the demands of their application. Allow a Phoenix America Inc. engineer to deliver a robust encoder or sensor package eliminating the need of additional covers, seals, housing and assembly steps to accommodate other ‘off the shelf’ solutions. It is not unusual for customers to reduce their bill of materials and their costs by involving Phoenix America Inc. in their application-specific solution.

High Cost Service Applications
Phoenix America Inc. encoders do not require their own bearing system and as such there is no bearing failure, no need to specify bearing life, and most importantly no need to send field service personnel on high cost service calls to replace or repair encoders with failed bearings. Downtime for service calls becomes a thing of the past with a Phoenix encoder. Additionally, Phoenix America encoders are highly durable. Go ahead – drop one on the floor, mount it up and ship it across the country on a rail car, toss it to colleague – a Phoenix Encoder handles all with ease.

Heavy Loads
In applications utilizing gears or drive belts, excessive radial (side) loading on a shaft can shorten the life of a conventional optical encoder or even destroy it. Other technologies need to specify anticipated side loads. In order to handle heavier loads and shock (200 g), the competition needs to call on ‘ultra heavy duty’ encoders. Phoenix America Inc. encoder solution is ‘non-contacting’ and utilizes no bearings of its own – it is truly the heavy load answer.

Corrosive or Washdown
Our competition adds costs in corrosive environments or in food or medical applications where a washdown may occur through the use of aluminum encoder housings with chemical film coatings, hard anodize finishes, and costly seals. Phoenix America Inc. encoders are packaged in engineering thermoplastics. The lack of bearing systems means the solution is immune to corrosive environments and washdowns.

Temperature Extremes
Fighting a standard operating range of 0 – 70 degrees C? Extend the range of your application to -40 to 125 degrees C.

Wet or Dirty Environments
There is no need to be selective in the Phoenix line of products to service a wet or dirty environment. Adequate sealing may be a ‘must’ for our competition using optics but not for a Phoenix America Inc. encoder. Stop worrying about contaminates infiltrating a shaft bearing with rapidly degraded optical encoder performance – no seals are needed with a Phoenix America Inc. magnetic encoder. Liquid environments pose no problems and no need to specify expensive leak testing.

Electrically Noisy Environments
The increasing use of sensing and feedback in automation means that electrical signals are consistently creating electromagnetic interference (EMI). Typical wiring protocol of shielded cable and twisted pair conductors with the Phoenix America Inc. magnetic encoder complementary channels and differential line receivers are typically sufficient to provide a noise immune signal.