The zone immediately adjacent to a welding process is one of the most extreme environments for electronic components and the intense levels of RFI created will cause the majority of inductive sensors to malfunction and, in some cases, result in a change of the output status.

To counteract this problem, Contrinex has developed a new range of weld immune sensors in which the operating state does not change, even when embedded at the heart of induction welding and hardening plants.

With tough copper-zinc alloy bodies, the sensors are sealed to IP67 and Teflon coated to withstand weld spatter and resist electromagnetic field interference and are supplied in M12, M18, M30 and 40mm x 40mm cubic (C44) formats.They are all PNP with a ‘normally open’ output and are fitted with a three-pin industry standard M12 connector.They are also CE approved with built-in output status LED and are short circuit, voltage reversal and induction overload protected.

These flush-mountable sensors have sensing distance from 3mm with the M12 up to 15mm with the C44.All these new Contrinex sensors have an identical operating distance on aluminium, brass and other non-ferrous metals as on steel.This means that when working with alloy components there is no shortening of sensing distance allowing sufficient clearance from the target to avoid front face damage, the most common form of sensor failure.This is an important feature as the welding of aluminium and other alloys is now becoming almost as common as steel.