HeavyDuty rotary encoders – the high precision heavyweight champions

April 16, 2020 3:17 pm

HeavyDuty rotary encoders from Baumer Hübner are the “original”. More than half a century ago, Baumer Hübner developed this type of particularly reliable and robust rotary encoders. Since then they have been used in all situations where the going is tough and where failure is not an option.

What distinguishes a HeavyDuty rotary encoder exactly and what options do they offer users?
Dockside cranes that unload thousands of tons of shipped goods daily. Conveyor systems that carry thousands of tons of mined ore from mining plants across many kilometers. Elevators that carry thousands of people daily. Automated production lines on which automobiles in various assembly stages are transported. Lifting bridges with a total weight of 1000s of tons that can carry several trains at once and that are lifted many times per day to allow ships to pass. These and many other application scenarios constitute the world of HeavyDuty rotary encoders – anytime difficult tasks must be reliably carried out under difficult conditions and over the long term.

The term has been linked to Hübner Berlin since the 1950s, when the company established the supreme rotary encoder class. Since that time, Hübner Berlin, which today belongs to sensor specialist Baumer, has continuously improved its products and is still considered the expert provider of HeavyDuty rotary encoders. But what do we mean when we talk about HeavyDuty products? After all, the term is not legally protected or regulated by a standard. “Heavy duty” as such simply means hard-wearing. A possible reason why some people think that HeavyDuty rotary encoders are simply encoders with thick housing walls and rust protection. In reality, the term denotes much much more.

What makes a rotary encoder “HeavyDuty”?
To Baumer Hübner, “HeavyDuty” is an all-encompassing performance promise. First of all, this means that such a rotary encoder never lets its user down, even under the most difficult conditions. And secondly that these heavyweights work as precisely as “small” rotary encoders for an extended period of time. HeavyDuty rotary encoders from Baumer Hübner accomplish this through four characteristics:
Precision: A rotary encoder must deliver reliable signals to allow users to precisely control and regulate drives and generators.
Plant control systems utilise these signals for speed monitoring of drives or for position feedback of machine parts.To controllers, this information is the only way to get informed and intervene, for example, if a drive exceeds or falls below a defined speed limit. Since the machines and systems are usually very big – dock cranes, bucket-wheel excavators, rolling mills, garbage shredders – they could give the above-mentioned impression that precision does not matter much. That is a mistake.