Project presentations at the commercial schools in Dillenburg

As part of their training, trainees in technical professions have to complete a project. ipf electronic has been supporting the Dillenburg industrial schools for many years when sensors are required for this work.

This year there was a "somewhat different I4.0 project": the task was to automate a sorting process. The following was assumed: large quantities of scrap are delivered to a recycling company every day, including mixed scrap consisting of ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals and plastics. Currently, this mixed scrap is transported via a simple conveyor belt and sorted manually for the most part. This inefficient process needs to be automated. The scrap should be sorted according to material groups and collected in one container each, and information about the amount of scrap already sorted in the individual containers should be displayed during the sorting process.

The participating vocational school classes were divided into six teams, each of which developed a coherent concept and built and commissioned the system. The industrial mechanics had to create holders and mounting options for the various components and assemble the system sensibly. The mechatronics engineers were responsible for selecting suitable electronic components, planning and implementing the system in terms of automated processes and wiring. The task for the IT specialists was to select suitable components and interfaces for data processing and to plan and implement the system with regard to the provision and display of relevant data.

The work was then presented on February 3, 2023. All six teams had solved the task in different ways. The teams showed great creativity, both in the visualization and in the selection of the sensors and thus in the recording of the different materials.

ipf electronic supplied the majority of the sensors - cylinder sensors, inductive and capacitive proximity switches and even a color sensor were used. ipf was able to present itself to the students, teachers and trainers with a small "exhibition stand". Product manager Volker Grefe presented the new VL610304 logic distributor and the PT120520 diffuse reflection laser sensor. These devices are particularly interesting thanks to the integrated IO-Link interface, as they can be individually parameterized.