different kinds of trays are filled with food and at the end they must be sealed with a transparent cover foil.
For that process the tray must be checked for correct alignment
The customer wants to do that with proximity sensors looking from top

• no through-beam system
• no reflector wanted

task & conditions

• food trays must be checked for correct alignment for the sealing process.
• different colors
• different sizes
• different heights
• High glossy
• all trays have a glossy flat edge overhang for the sealing foil

our suggestion

tray control based on FlexChain with a row of GTB6

• profile tracking with proximity sensors
• watching the outer beams - we only have a safe detection at the sealing overhang
• example with 10 x GTB6

• Checking if outer beams matches in at least 2 positions:
• Example with 10 beams (channels)

red = no detection
green = detection
gray = doesn't matter

FlexChain settings in SOPAS (as an example)

Zone Configuration

Here we can define 2 x Zones which can be used for a "out of range" indication.

Pin Configuration

Here we can assign 2 x Q outputs for the zone above
Furthermore we can create a Trigger Input, which starts a hold function (optional): during Pin5 = HIGH all beams keep blocked until LOW state.

Process Data

The customer can use the Process Data via IO-Link or RS485 and do his own evaluation in his PLC.

Flow Chart

As an example you see here how the process looks.