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  1. Cylinder sensors
  2. Sensors for pneumatic cylinders

Sensors for pneumatic cylinders

Cylinder sensors are used for position detection of pistons on pneumatic cylinders. They are directly mounted onto the cylinder. The ring magnet attached to the piston is detected through the housing wall of non-magnetisable material (e.g. aluminium, brass or stainless steel). They can be mounted directly on T-slot and C-slot cylinders and also on round, tie rod, profile tube or trapezoidal slot cylinders using an adaptation.

T-slot cylinders

The T-slot is the most widely used slot in pneumatic cylinders. Typically no accessories are required for mounting ifm’s T-slot cylinder sensors. The sensors can simply be pushed into the slot and fixed with the fastening clamp.
The cylinder sensors can be mounted without accessories in a T-slot with a width of 5.1 to 5.7 mm. The effective height of the clamp should be between 3.3 and 4.5 mm.

Cylinder Cross section Typical manufacturers
Festo ADN
Festo DSBC
Festo AEVC
SMC CP95

C-slot cylinders

The C-slot is particularly widespread in the Asian region.Typically, no accessories are required for mounting the ifm C-slot cylinder sensors. The sensors can simply be pushed into the slot and fixed with the fastening clamp.
The C-slot sensors can also be mounted in a T-slot using the T-slot adapter E11928.
The cylinder sensors can be mounted without accessories in a T-slot with a width of 3.0 to 3.3 mm. The effective height of the clamp should be between 3.0 and 4.0 mm.

Cylinder Cross section Typical manufacturers
Festo ADN-S
SMC CP96
SMC C55
SMC CQ2

Integrated profile or tie rod cylinders

The structure of profile or tie rod cylinders is similar in principle. If no additional slot can be found on the pneumatic cylinder, accessories are required for mounting the cylinder sensor. The accessories offered are tailored to ifm’s T-slot sensors. The mounting accessories must be selected according to the clamp width.

Cylinder Cross section Typical manufacturers
Festo
SMC C96

Clean line cylinder

Clean line cylinders have neither a fixing slot nor a fixing element such as a tie rod. Therefore, additional accessories are required for the adaptation of the T-slot cylinder sensor. This differs depending on the diameter of the piston and the material.

Cylinder Cross section Typical manufacturers
Festo DSNU
SMC C85

Trapezoidal slot cylinder

The trapezoidal slot or dovetail groove is typically wider than a conventional T-slot. Accessories are thereforerequired for mounting the T-slot cylinder sensor. This differs depending on the width of the cylinder slot.

Cylinder Cross section Typical manufacturers
Festo DSNU
SMC C85

Manufacturer-specific cylinder slot

In addition to the cylinder types commonly used on the market, there are always manufacturer-specific cylinder slot. Customised adapters are available for installing the T-slot cylinder sensors on these cylinders.

Adapter for mounting on manufacturer-specific cylinders

Select by application

Application Advantages To the products

Welding
  • Connector coated with Safecoat
  • PTFE conduit to prevent damage caused by welding spatter
Use in welding applications

High pressure cleaning
  • Protection IP69K
  • PVC cable
Use in wet areas

Use in hazardous areas
  • For intrinsically safe circuits
  • Requires a Namur switching amplifier
  • Can be used in all Atex zones
Atex II 1 D / G
  • Applicable in zone 22
Atex II 3 D
  • Applicable in zone 2
Atex II 3 G