Battery foils double layer detection with IMC12 or IMC08

The task:
Detect battery foils with a thickness of ~0.1mm. A robot pick up the foils and place it like you can see in the picture below. The problem here is that sometimes the thin foils are being stacked above each other and no “double foils” are allowed. The foils are called Anode, Cathode and separator foils and are made of aluminum or copper.

                         



Our proposal:
The IMC12-04BPPVC0SC05 #1084803 or IMC08-02BPPVC0SC05 #1084804.
The new IMC inductive double layer detection sensors are specially made for this task.
It is the easiest way to detect double layer. You only have to mount it flat in the gripper, teach it via SOPAS or manually and that’s it.
The distance to the first foil has to be always the same (otherwise no reliable differentiation between one or two foils is possible) therefore detection from the bottom that the distance to the lower foil is always the same or from top with eg. a plastic block where the IDF sensor is screwed in 1mm and the block lays directly on the upper foil, as you can see below:

Instead of the below showed IMC demonstrator you can use eg. a plastic part with threaded hole (M8 or 12) to screw the sensor in and have a fixed object - sensor distance which is very important to solve this application reliable.

 
Q1 is active and Q2 is inactive

 
Q2 is active and Q1 is inactive

 
Q1 and Q2 are active


Setup:
To show how to set-up the sensor we will show you via SOPAS.
Distance between sensor and Battery foil is 1mm +-0.2mm.
First of all open SOPAS and go to the tab “Teach”, klick on “Start teach-in”. Then follow the steps you can see.

First step, teach with no layer.
 

Second step, place two layers in front of the sensor and click on “Teach 2 layers”.
 
 

Third step, place one layer in front of the sensor and click on “Teach 1 layer”.
 
 

And the last step is “save” the teached data.
 

The thresholds will be set like you can see in the picture above (blue=SP2 and green=SP1).

To teach the IMC without IO-Link via the pin2 you have to
1. put the sensor on one foil and connect pin2 to 24V for 2s until the yellow sensor LED starts blinking. If the yellow LED blinks disconnect the 24V, 
2. put the sensor on two foils and connect pin2 to 24V for 2s until the blue sensor LED starts blinking. If the blue LED blinks disconnect the 24V
If the teach was successfully the yellow and blue LEDs light for 1s
If the teach failed the yellow and blue LEDs flashs for 2s with 7Hz

If you have any questions or other solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us.