New hollow-shaft encoders open up universal compatibility

Sick has unveiled its next-generation family of large-bore hollow-shaft incremental encoders, the Sick DGS80, with a design concept that the company says has opened up versatile integration possibilities across wide-ranging industrial automation applications, aided by a streamlined specification process and easy installation.

The Sick DGS80 incremental encoder spans a broad range of shaft diameters up to 42mm, all within an extremely compact and rugged IP65-rated 81mm diameter housing. Starting with standard 30mm or 42mm diameter bores, the shaft size can be reduced with a large range of specially-designed insulated collets to ensure a secure connection to the application.

Sick’s new large bore hollow-shaft encoder family therefore gives end-users and machine builders the confidence of universal machine compatibility while stocking minimal inventory. The DGS80 is also ideal for AC asynchronous motor feedback applications, capable of measuring speeds up to 3,600 revolutions per minute, with a resolution of up to 8,192 pulses per revolution. The plastic collets also offer the advantage of isolating the bearings from the motor current, ensuring long encoder life.

Versatile and adaptable

“The Sick DGS80 opens up countless options for speed measurement in machine, web and conveyor designs, while its compact housing makes it ideal for use as a replacement for existing encoders,” explains Sick encoder product manager Daniel Schmit. “Customers no longer need to engineer a cumbersome connection to a smaller encoder shaft; the same encoder can be adapted to many machine designs.”

Installation time is kept to a minimum by a choice of two slotted encoder stator couplings that enable users to bolt the encoder at the right position onto any machinery, so there is no need to custom-make mounting brackets. Designed to Nema motor frame standards, the stator couplings also facilitate flexible mounting to the drive shaft of an AC motor. Once mounted on a shaft, the Sick DGS80’s clamping ring makes it easy to tighten the encoder in place using a single set screw.

The Sick DGS80’s broad supply voltage range of 5V to 30V, for either HTL and TTL outputs, facilitates integration into most machine controls and eliminates the need to choose between different voltage ranges. The temperature range of the DGS80 extends from -25°C to 85°C to cover many industrial applications. A choice of cable and connector options: M12, MS10pin, M23 and Cable, together with a range of six encoder resolutions, is sufficient to ensure wide-scale compatibility.

“The DGS80 has been conceived to make electrical, mechanical and control system integration straightforward, as well as to ease the all-too-familiar headache of having to specify from a huge range of encoder options,” continues Schmit. “Sick has radically reduced the potential combinations to a minimal list of encoder part numbers, so whether specifying the DGS80 with the help of Sick’s technical sales team, or directly on the website, customers can get up and running in no time.”