Multi-axis photoelectric sensor
AssigneeOMRON Corporation
InventorsKeisaku Kikuchi, Kazunori Osako
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided is a multi-axis photoelectric sensor that outputs a high-level signal while a detection area is not shielded and stops the signal output when the detection area is shielded, wherein a sequence of a change in a non-shielded state and in a shielded state of the detection area formed by optical axes and inputs from muting sensors are divided into a plurality of stages for monitoring, and muting processing is executed when the stages progress normally. When an abnormality in the sequence is detected in a stage being monitored, indicator lights are blinked by a number of times corresponding to the stage in which the abnormality has been detected, to provide a notification of a stage in which the abnormality has been detected.
Claims6
A multi-axis photoelectric sensor comprising;
- a projector and an optical receiver disposed opposed to each other, between which a detection area is formed by a plurality of optical axes;
- a detector that sequentially detects a non-shielded state and a shielded state of the optical axes to determine the non-shielded state and the shielded state of the detection area as a whole;
- a signal output that outputs a high-level signal while the detector determines that the detection area is in the non-shielded state and stops the signal output when the detector determines that the detection area is in the shielded state;
- and
- a muting processor that temporarily disables the signal output stop function of the signal output when the determination results from the detector and a detection signal input from an external muting device change according to a prescribed sequence, wherein
- the muting processor includes an abnormality detector that divides into a plurality of stages the sequence of a change in the determination results from the detector and the detection signal from the muting device for monitoring to detect an abnormality in the sequence in the stage being monitored;
- an output controller that prevents the signal output stop function from being disabled in response to detection of the abnormality by the abnormality detector;
- and a notifier that outputs, in response to detection of the abnormality by the abnormality detector, information indicating a stage in which the abnormality has been detected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.