News

Since its inception in 2013, the Graphene Flagship has focused on technological innovation and bringing new graphene-enabled solutions to the market. To this end, it has pioneered the creation of several spin-off companies in industries ranging from energy and materials discovery to biotech and optoelectronics.

The newest member of this family is Qurv Technologies, launched from Graphene Flagship partner ICFO in Barcelona, Spain and established in 2020 by Antonios Oikonomou, Stijn Goossens, Gerasimos Konstantatos and Frank Koppens.

Qurv was founded to develop graphene-enabled wide-spectrum image sensor technologies for next-generation computer vision applications, bringing unprecedented intelligence to products and services.

Combining the unique electronic properties of graphene with suitable quantum nanoparticles as light sensitisers allows for efficient detection of a broad range of wavelengths – from ultraviolet to infrared light – all concentrated into one simple device. Importantly, the production and transfer process of graphene leverages existing scalable Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) manufacturing processes.

Furthermore, this graphene-based sensor replaces traditional costly alternatives based on indium gallium arsenide, paving the way to SWIR imagers up to 1000 times cheaper. This could significantly expand their market.

Graphene-based wide-spectrum sensors will give machines the gift of sight and boost their decision-making capabilities. Computer vision applications are useful in a variety of fields, from autonomous cars – capable of detecting obstacles around them – to intelligent machinery such as service and industrial robots. Qurv has created a ‘plug-and-play’ manufacturing approach, making it more widely compatible and accessible than current alternatives.

Qurv recently joined the Graphene Flagship ecosystem as a Partner and Industrial Advisor of the 2D-EPL Board while undertaking the challenge of leading our Spearhead Project AUTOVISION. This project will produce image sensors based on graphene and quantum-dots, and make them ready for evaluation by the automotive industry. The project still has two more years ahead, during which researchers and innovators within partner institutions will further develop the technology towards industrialisation.

Antonios Oikonomou, co-founder and CEO of Qurv, says: “We are thrilled to announce this new spin-off that aims to fill a significant, ever expanding gap in the imaging market. The capabilities of these sensors are common in defence and aerospace applications, but are inaccessible to most people. We strongly believe that, thanks to our unique combination of advanced quantum materials, we can reduce the cost of SWIR sensors and bring them down to earth, enabling industry uptake. Imaging applications are moving from ‘pretty pictures’ to sensing, and wide-spectrum brings numerous advantages in both performance and function.”

Frank Koppens, co-founder of Qurv and research group leader at Graphene Flagship partner ICFO, adds: “This new company builds upon years of research and development within ICFO and the Graphene Flagship. We are convinced it will become a commercial success, proven by the awards and investments we have already received. We aim to further expand our network within the project, and look forward to the applications and outcomes from AUTOVISION, which will bolster the wider adoption of autonomous driving technologies.”

Kari Hjelt, Head of Innovation at the Graphene Flagship, says: “We have supported spin-offs since the very beginning, and it is fantastic to see new members joining our family of innovators. Qurv’s technology demonstrates that graphene offers cheap, sustainable and environmentally friendly solutions for real industry demands. In addition, this highlights Europe’s advantageous position in the field of graphene and layered materials, facilitated and accelerated by the Graphene Flagship’s multidisciplinary, collaborative ecosystem.”

Anritsu Corporation has announced an upgraded synchronous measurement function for the company’s Network Master Pro MT1000A, the industry’s smallest- in-class tester supporting mobile networks up to 100 Gbps. Fifth generation (5G) networks are expected to support increasing future numbers of applications and services, such as hi-definition video streaming, autonomous driving, IoT sensing, smart factories, etc. By upgrading this MT1000A test function, Anritsu hopes to facilitate construction of time-synchronous infrastructure, a key technology supporting 5G networks.

New Product Outline

The MU100090B is a GNSS disciplined oscillator supporting GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou and QZSS. It receives signals from each of these GNSS to output a UTC-traceable reference time signal as well as 10-MHz signals as a time-synchronous, high-accuracy reference timing supplied to the portable MT1000A, supporting SyncE Wander and PTP tests up to 25 Gbps for measuring network time synchronization.

Furthermore, multiple MT1000A testers at various remote sites can be operated and monitored from the central office using the Site Over Remote Access MX109020A (SORA) software to help quickly pinpoint synchronization problems.

Development Background

Deployment of 5G communications networks is spreading due to the advantages of ultra-high speeds, high reliability, low latency, and multiple simultaneous connections in various scenarios. The millimeter-wave (mmWave) band used by 5G technology employs the TDD time-division duplexing technology for managing timing of uplink and downlink signals.

This technology requires that the time at all base stations is precisely synchronized, otherwise interference will cause degraded communications quality. Moreover, achieving a “smart” IoT-based society will require cooperation between devices exchanging position information acquired using OTDOA positioning technology, which is ideal for IoT applications, but high-accuracy position measurement is impossible without high-accuracy time synchronization between base stations.

Base stations can be synchronized using wired-network technologies called SyncE and PTP, which require both measurement of the network time-synchronization performance when installing and maintaining a cell site, along with guaranteed network performance by the network operator.

Moreover, the O-RAN Alliance, which is a mainstream promoter of base-station multivendor, increasingly requires tests of overall mobile network time-synchronization performance to assure interconnectivity.

Time-synchronization quality is indicated by drift from coordinated universal time (UTC), so precise time-synchronization measurement requires expensive infrastructure to acquire UTC with high accuracy. This can be a challenge at installation and maintenance of many cell sites.

Anritsu has developed many test instruments for measuring the jitter and wander of transport networks since the SDH/SONET era. Adding this new High Performance GNSS Disciplined Oscillator MU100090B to the line of modules for the portable, battery-operated MT1000A will help simplify on-site I&M time-synchronization tests.

 

Advanced ceramic heaters offer numerous benefits in the design of analytical equipment. Many of the heaters used in industry today are metal sheathed, a long-standing technology that has been available for over 30 years. While such heaters are excellent for a wide variety of complex thermal applications, today’s newer and more advanced analytical equipment requires higher performance and precision. Here, Andy Selvy Chief System Designer at industrial technology company Watlow, explores the benefits of advanced ceramic heaters.

Analytical equipment, such as gas-chromatograph mass spectrometers (GC-MS), is used to determine the presence of trace chemicals, alcohols and hormones and separate complex mixtures in a number of research, industrial and clinical applications. For example, GC-MS detect concentrations of drugs in blood, as well as contaminants in air, water and soil, and can help to develop new pharmaceutical products.

The MS component breaks each separated compound coming from the GC into ionized fragments, which requires a high energy beam of electrons to pass through the sample molecule to produce electrically charged particles or ions.

The equipment requires the ionization of the sample and inert gas, and so a heating element that can reach a precise temperature quickly is a vital component. However, many legacy heating technologies that have exerted their performance and reliability and now must be designed to reflect the smaller, higher throughput analytical equipment that is taking over the market. This means heaters must also be smaller to enable miniaturization and optimize performance.

Today’s heaters

Modern advanced ceramic heaters can achieve higher performance and precision criteria, while allowing for greater design flexibility and faster time to market.

To appreciate the recent innovation in heating technology, it helps to understand some of the limitations faced by more traditional metal heaters. These heaters must be inserted into another block of metal inside the equipment in order to perform their thermal job. As the heater sheath and the block are made of metal, they cannot meet the ion source and often require additional electrical isolation.

These design tradeoffs require a larger carbon footprint, as well as a more complex assembly procedure. Metal-sheathed heaters also typically require longer heat-up and cool-down times, given that there is more mass in the heater and holder. This results in slower system startup and changes between set points.

Advances in ceramic heater technology overcome many of these issues and offer greater design flexibility and performance. Advanced ceramic heaters allow equipment designers to create room for new components, reduce a machine’s overall footprint, improve accuracy and performance, all while simplifying the manufacturing and assembly process.

The benefits of advanced heaters

To allow for more innovative designs, Watlow has developed ULTRAMIC, an advanced, high-performance ceramic heater. ULTRAMIC advanced ceramic heaters are designed for optimal performance in thermal applications where rapid thermal cycling and more precise control is needed.

ULTRAMIC heaters are constructed from aluminum nitride (AIN) and incorporate a thermally matched, proprietary heating element. AlN is especially suitable for applications requiring a clean, non-contaminating heat source. Additionally, excellent geometric stability ensures consistent part-to-part thermal contact during heating cycles.

These components, used together in the right circumstances, give rise to a number of unique properties including high electrical isolation, with low-leakage current, superior chemical resistance, high thermal conductivity and temperature uniformity across the heater surface, plus high durability.

Today’s analytical equipment has surpassed the innovation of heaters designed 30 years ago. To ensure design innovation is not limited, equipment designers must consider more advanced heaters in their equipment.

Advanced ceramic heaters are smaller, respond faster and can be more resistant to environmental contamination compared to conventional heaters. In particular, Watlow’s ULTRAMIC advanced ceramic heaters can help analytical equipment manufacturers improve product performance and design, as well as accelerate their time to market.

One year into the company’s 2030 One Connected World strategy, TE Connectivity, a world leader in connectivity and sensors, has continued to improve how it designs, manufactures and ships its products in its first steps toward meeting sustainability goals announced last year.

Over the past year, TE’s efforts have put the company on-track to meet several 2030 sustainability goals by beginning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and water withdrawal. TE also has impacted more than 650,000 people through STEM grants from TE and the TE Connectivity Foundation to inspire the next generation of sustainable engineers, well toward its goal of 3 million people by 2030.

“TE collaborates closely with our customers to create sustainable technology like electric vehicles and more efficient data centers, as well as solutions to ensure renewable energy sources like wind turbines and solar panels get connected to the grid,” said CEO Terrence Curtin. “Since our products empower technologies that reduce humanity’s impact on the planet, it is important to TE that they are created in a sustainable way. I’m pleased that our employees, customers and owners have responded to our One Connected World strategy with an incredible show of support and excitement and I’m confident in our ability to deliver on our commitments.”

In order to meet the 2030 goals, sustainability is a part of every TE initiative, large and small. In TE’s facilities, two manufacturing sites in Germany achieved a net zero carbon footprint in 2020 by generating their own solar energy and supporting climate protecting projects. On the product side, TE innovated upon one of its core manufacturing processes–plating–to save energy with a new surface technology for automotive parts that consumes a fraction of the water and reduces energy consumption by 35%. Working to improve upon shipping practices, TE piloted the use of a more sustainable way to package products for shipment that requires 30% less wrapping material and is 100% recyclable.

Smart factories are on the increase as the manufacturing industry becomes progressively automated. Tomorrow’s plant engineers must have the knowledge to work with robots, controls, networking and software required to effectively run the Smart Factories of the future.

It is precisely this knowledge that Redcar & Cleveland College wanted to share with its students using state-of-the-art automation equipment from Mitsubishi Electric.

The products provided will offer a unique, hands-on experience to students, who are enthusiastic about the opportunity.

Making sure students are prepared for future careers in a manufacturing sector that is becoming increasingly automated was the guiding principle behind Redcar & Cleveland College’s investment in advanced technologies.

Neil Bowen, Head of Department for Construction, Engineering and Service Industries explains: “We believe in the importance of developing pupil skills that will be highly relevant on the job. At the moment, this means ‘industrialising the curriculum’ and making sure students will be proficient in Smart Manufacturing environments by having an in-depth understanding of the equipment that underpins Industry 4.0.”

“We set out to provide the opportunity to interact with these technologies in a supportive and less time pressured educational environment allowing students to learn at their own pace, before entering the workplace with added value experience.”

To achieve this, it was essential to replicate real-world industrial operating conditions, where modern, up to date and widely used automation products are in place. More precisely, the further education provider was looking for PLCs, HMIs and a robot to conduct hands-on activities suitable for students enrolled in different courses.

The request went to Mitsubishi Electric’s factory automation division. Neil Bowen comments: “The existing PLCs at our college belonged to Mitsubishi Electric’s FX3 series and they served us well for a number of years. Our employees were extremely happy with them, as they were long lasting, high-quality pieces of equipment and the GX Works software used to program was particularly user friendly.”

Effective system integration for industry-like settings

The automation specialist set up a close collaboration with the department to specify the most suitable and cost-effective PLCs, HMIs and six-axis robotic arm. In particular, to help students interact with industrial robotic set-ups, Mitsubishi Electric suggested its cooperative system as an ideal solution. This would allow the pupils to benefit from a system that is widely used in factory environments to learn how to program different axes of motion, as well as gain an understanding on how to deploy and maintain the robot.

In addition, the two parties agreed on substituting the current FX3 series PLCs with the latest FX5UC. Steve Pickup, Key Account Manager – Automation Systems Division at Mitsubishi Electric explains: “While the FX3 is still a valuable system, we suggested students would appreciate using one of the latest controllers with more features.”

Mitsubishi Electric then contacted its innovation partner BPX and Helios Precision Engineering to support the supply of compact, highly integrated modules enclosed in desktop panels. In this way, students could truly benefit from an industry-like set-up.

Rob Flicker, Project Engineer at Helios Precision Engineering, says: “We have a long standing, successful relationship with both Mitsubishi Electric and Redcar & Cleveland College and were extremely excited to support this educational project by providing suitable panels. This helped the pupils to be able to use the kit as soon as possible, without the need to create units by themselves.”

One of the main aspects that Mitsubishi Electric, BPX and Helios had to discuss was creating individual compact, bespoke modules that would combine one PLC and one HMI each, whilst being able to fit on the students’ desks. “The use of FX5UC PLCs was particularly beneficial, as this range has one of the smallest footprints available. Furthermore, we worked hard to make sure we would deliver a professional, finished product that would mimic what is found in highly automated factories at an affordable price,” explains Rob Flicker.

Transformed learning experience

Thanks to this project, Redcar & Cleveland College now has an articulated arm six-axis robot with its own PLC, plus 13x PLC + GOT HMI control stations, as well as GX Works software that helps students to interact with and program the equipment. Perhaps more importantly, the systems provided can be easily upgraded to provide a future proof solution.

One of the first projects the students carried out was correctly wiring the PLCs to suitable terminal blocks. They saw first-hand what it means to conduct real-world I/O installations.

As a strong supporter of automation-oriented educational activities, Mitsubishi Electric was able to offer the equipment at a competitive price to support the institute. Furthermore, the company will continue to provide technical support to teachers and students.

As a result of this successful collaboration, the college has decided to standardise on Mitsubishi Electric for all its PLCs. “The outcome of this project is already clear, as it is helping our pupils receive an education that is highly functional and in step with the time. The feedback received from teachers and students was really good. This is why we will rely on this winning team for future projects,” comments Neil Bowen.

Steve Pickup concludes: “We are pleased to see our automation products used at a forward-looking educational centre because it underlines the fact that they are reliable, robust and easy to use. Familiarity with our equipment will also benefit the students as they move out into industry. We always look forward to collaborating with Redcar & Cleveland College to help form the factory automation specialists of the future.”

Xsens, the manufacturer of motion tracking modules, has announced two new products in its technologically advanced MTi 600-series, extending the customer’s choice of rugged products with and without an integrated satellite positioning receiver.

Xsens is adding a new GNSS/Inertial Navigation System (INS) module, the MTi-670G, and a rugged Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS), the MTi-630R to the MTi 600-series. The complete MTi 600-series line-up now offers a flexible and diverse choice of products which is capable of meeting a broad range of application requirements at competitive prices. The rugged products added to MTi 600-series are particularly well suited to use in harsh environments in maritime, mining, agricultural and many other applications.

Boele de Bie, Xsens’ CEO, said: ‘The latest members of the MTi 600-series are the fruit of Xsens’ continued investment in product development and new technology, ensuring that we provide the combination of performance, features and value that our customers demand across the range of markets we serve, from high-volume mainstream electronics to highly specialised product designs including RTK.’

Rugged enclosure withstands harsh environments

The MTi-670G and MTi630R are housed in an IP68-rated aluminium enclosure which measures 40.9mm x 56.5mm x 36.8mm, and which is highly vibration- and shock-proof. Both modules feature standard CAN and RS232 interfaces and an output data rate of up to 400Hz.

The new MTi-670G GNSS/INS module includes a high-performance u-blox ZED F9 GNSS receiver. Sophisticated sensor fusion firmware in the module combines the receiver’s inputs with integrated 3D attitude (tilt, inclination) and heading measurements to provide absolute positioning accuracy of better than ±1m. The sensor is easy to integrate into system designs thanks to its support for Xbus and standard NMEA and CAN protocols, and the provision of Xsens’ popular MT Software Suite for developers. The suite includes the MT Manager GUI for Windows or Linux operating systems and a useful Magnetic Field Mapper function.

The MTi-630R AHRS is a ruggedised version of the successful MTi-630 AHRS. It offers the same high performance, including roll/pitch measurement accuracy of ±0.2°, and heading accuracy of ±1°. Like the MTi-670G, the MTi-630R is easy to integrate into end product designs thanks to the MT Software Suite, which also includes drivers for the LabVIEW, ROS and GO development languages.

Like all MTi 600-series products, the new modules also offer numerous differentiating features:

• Precise factory calibration of MTI
• High immunity to magnetic interference
• Adaptive firmware operation to optimise performance in various types of applications
• Out-of-the-box operation with Xsens’ popular MTi development (DK) or starter kits (SK)

The MTi-670G and MTi-630R are available for sampling now. Ruggedised versions of the MTi-610 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and MTi-620 Vertical Reference Unit (VRU), the MTi-610R and MTi-620R, are available on request.

The sensor manufacturer HENSOLDT has awarded its “Argus” research prize to outstanding theses by university graduates in high-frequency and communications engineering, digital signal processing, optronics and cybertechnology as part of its cooperation with research institutions and universities. New findings in these specialist areas are important for the further development of the technology group’s product portfolio.

“Our products represent the state of the art,” said HENSOLDT Chief Human Resources Officer Peter Fieser at the welcoming ceremony. “Their development and production requires experts who enjoy challenging tasks and want to contribute their skills to complex projects.”

The prize, each worth 1,500 euros, has been awarded for 18 years. The award ceremony took place during the annual Professor’s Day, due to the pandemic as an online event with over 500 participants. Professors from technically oriented universities and colleges as well as experts from the company regularly use this platform to exchange knowledge. “All the award-winning papers deal with the field of sensor technologies – a key technology for the security and defence capability of the Federal Republic of Germany. As such, they make contributions to the technological sovereignty of Germany and Europe,” emphasised Dr Jürgen Bestle, Chief Technology Officer of HENSOLDT.

A jury of university professors and company experts selected outstanding bachelor’s and master’s theses by graduates of the Ulm University of Technology, one from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE), two from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, two from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and one from the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University Aachen from numerous submissions.

First prize in the “Bachelor” category went to David Brunner from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) with his work on mutual interference influence in automotive radars, supervised by Professor Thomas Zwick. Another prize was awarded to Veronika Keilwerth from the Ulm University of Technology with her Bachelor’s thesis, supervised by Professor Thorsten Hasbargen, on the reliability of testing apps in aerospace or medical technology. Steffen Jung from the Fraunhofer Institute FKIE and the University of Bonn also received an award for his work. Supervised by Professors Peter Martini and Wolfgang Koch, he dealt with the use of artificial intelligence to increase the safety of autonomous vehicles.

In the “Master” category, Patrick Fenske from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (Professor Martin Vossiek) was awarded with a thesis on the identification of transmitters for tracking deliveries of goods in the context of Industry 4.0. Also supervised by Professor Martin Vossiek at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg was André Scheder, who was awarded for his Master’s thesis on efficiency-enhancing communication technologies. Jonas Pfaff from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology dealt with multi-antenna systems of the next generation of mobile communications and received a prize for his work, which was supervised by Professor Thomas Zwick and Professor Cagri Ulusoy. The jury also found the Master’s thesis by Thindlu Rudrappa Manjunath from the Fraunhofer Institute FHR and the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University Aachen worthy of a prize. Supervised by Professors Dirk Heberling and Peter Knott, he investigated the non-contact measurement of circulation parameters using a new type of radar technology.

In his laudatory speech, HENSOLDT technology coordinator Dr Guy Kouemou, who moderated the event, emphasised the special role of close cooperation between industry and research: “New innovative products based on networked sensor technology, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, for example, require a great deal of detailed research. The outstanding graduates of our partner colleges, universities and research institutes make an important contribution to this”.

At HENSOLDT’s Ulm site, around 2,500 employees are involved in the development and production of complex safety electronics, including radars, electronic protection systems and high-frequency electronic components. Most of the employees are engineers and technicians, and about 120 young people are in training.

The Financial Times has listed 300 European Climate Leaders 2021. The list includes European companies that achieved the greatest reduction in their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 2014 and 2019. Vaisala is proud to be near the top of the list.

Vaisala, a global leader in weather, environmental, and industrial measurements, is ranked 14th on the Financial Times list of 300 European climate leaders. Climate change is turning into an ever more crucial challenge for our planet, and with this study the Financial Times underlines great achievements but also encourages companies to do more.

“It is a great honour to be included on the top of Financial Times’s Climate Leaders list, and it is a result of consistent and excellent work on reducing our own carbon footprint. We can see that the climate situation is getting more urgent, creating a chain of environmental, societal, and economic impacts on our planet. This calls also for actions from the private sector to step up and be a key driver of change in the transition to a low-carbon economy,” says Kai Öistämö, President and CEO, Vaisala.

Vaisala achieves this excellent position, whether ranked by GHG emission reduction aligned with revenue growth during the years 2014–2019 or total reduction of GHG emissions in the same timeframe. Vaisala’s figures on these scales are 37.3% (average per year) and 86.9% (total) respectively. The great reduction is largely due to the fact that Vaisala has worked towards using 100% renewable electricity and achieved this target in 2020.

The Financial Times’ study takes into account Scope 1 and 2 emissions, meaning those emissions directly produced by a company itself and those produced in generating the energy used by the company. Other parts of the value chain, such as suppliers and product use, are left out.

“We have taken great measures to reduce our carbon footprint continuously, and if we look at our latest figures from last year, they surpass even the 86.9% in the Financial Times’ list. In 2020, our total reduction of core emissions from the 2014 baseline was actually 94%. Sustainability really is at the core, and it is visible not only in our own operations but throughout the value chain. We place expectations on our suppliers so that they act according to our sustainability standards. Also, the net impact of our solutions is demonstrably positive: the greatest impact of our products stems from our product use,” explains Marjo Hietapuro, Sustainability Manager, Vaisala.

“The fact that we are able to do good for our planet in every part of our value chain makes me very proud to work for Vaisala. Our handprint is positive: as our customers use our products, they can, for example, prepare for extreme weather events beforehand, make renewable energy production more efficient, or reduce the emissions from their industrial processes. We help them to build a better future for our planet. It is truly extraordinary to get to work for a company where everything we do is meaningful,” Öistämö concludes.

An automated tool-change process reduces setup times and improves machine efficiency, but introduces the risk of damage if the tool-press is not completely closed before its moulding tools are changed.

Therefore a Contrinex inductive sensor is trusted to ensure that the tool-press is completely closed, so that the moulding tools can be changed safely and efficiently.

Customer application

Hydraulic presses that are used to mould automotive body parts have had their tool change automated.

The down-acting hydraulic presses which are common in many industries, feature rams that hold the upper tool half in position as they press down on the lower half.

To change tooling requires the detachment of the upper tool half from the ram, putting it into the lower half, and sliding both out of the press. Before the ram releases the top half for any tool change, the tool pair must be in the closed position. This ensures that both tool halves are perfectly aligned when the automatic tool-change process starts, avoiding damage to either tool or press and any consequent downtime.

Customer solution

The Contrinex DW-AS-603-M18-002 inductive sensor meets the requirements of this application, due to its robust industrial construction and the proven reliability of its sensing capabilities – There is also the benefit that it is from Contrinex’s lowest priced, ‘Basic’ ‘600’ series of inductive sensors.

A single sensor is mounted using an angle bracket on the lower tool housing. Directly above it, a matching bracket on the upper housing serves as the reference surface. Before enabling tool release, this sensor is checked. Since the target does not enter the switching range until the tool is fully closed, premature tool release is prevented.

The accuracy in switching distance of these sensors means that the upper tool half is only released when the tool is fully and correctly closed. The checking process is quick and reliable and prevents the press from proceeding to the tool-change process with incorrectly closed tools, to avoid downtime and damage to tools and the press.

Contrinex sensors are available from PLUS Automation.