Tri-Tronics is a manufacturer of photoelectric sensors, fiber-optics, control modules, and accessories.
Tri-Tronics is located in Tampa, Florida, and has been in business since 1954. Their product line is very diverse in functionality, from fully-featured products to cost-effective products. While some of Tri-Tronics products are for general purpose, they have many products dedicated for specific applications.
One of the most popular Tri-Tronics products is the Smart-Eye E-Z Pro sensor. The Tri-Tronics Smart-Eye E-Z Pro Series is the second product to be introduced in the Pro Series, following the Tri-Tronics Smart-Eye Pro Series. Just as the Smart-Eye Pro Series, the Smart-eye E-Z Pro Series is micro-processor based, and offeres many additional features over the Smart-Eye Mark-2. These additional features offered in the Smart-Eye E-Z Pro Series, include Auto-Set, Auto-Trac, pulse-stretchers, and Action Alert.
The Tri-Tronics Auto-Set feature is perhaps the most significant advance feature, in that it offers an automated, initial set-up. All Tri-Tronics products prior to the Pro Series required the usual, manual initial set-up. That manual initial set-up meant that the performance of the sensor was only as good as the skills of the operator. That alone may have been generally acceptable, except that for over 30 years, Tri-Tronics has had an industry unique Offset control, as an alternative to the typical sensitivity control found on competitive product. While the Offset offers a distinct advance in resolution, adjustment of it was radically different, and hence great performance advantage was masked by those who did not know how to use it to their benefit. The Auto-set feature, with a single push of the button, achieves an automatic initial set-up. The Auto-set develops an optimum initial set-up, and a consistent set-up, independent of operator skills. The Auto-set, first offered in any of the Pro Series, made the use of the sensor easy for all. Even though the sensor has an Auto-set feature, the sensor initial set-up can be performed entirely manually, or the Auto-set feature can be used to develop an initial set-up, and then followed with manual tweaking as desired, via the up or down buttons to address the most unusual applications. The Tri-Tronics Auto-set feature could be either activated locally, with a push of the button on the sensor body, or remotely, via a NPN sinking signal input. The Remote activation may be advantageous where the sensor is physically inaccessible.
The Tri-Tronics Auto-Trac feature offered on-going self-adjustment. That ensured that once the Auto-set established an optimal initial setup, that that optimal performance would be maintained over time, to deal with the dynamics of the application. Together, these two features were synergistic with the other performance advantages that the product offered, such as very fast response time and higher resolution via the still-resident feature, the Offset algorithm.
The Tri-Tronics Pulse Stretcher features are selectable via the on-board menu. If the pulse-stretchers are preferred, the user can select from 10 ms, 25 ms, or a 50 ms. Pulse stretchers are technically off-delays, that are typically used to stretch the duration of the event, to give enough time for the PLC scan to recognize the event.
The Action-Alert feature is an LED indication, to signify in advance, of a deteriorating signal level, before it affects reliable switching. While in the Smart-Eye Pro-Series this is an LED indication only, the predecessor Series, Smart-Eye Pro, provided an active output to remotely notify of this deteriorating signal level so that pre-emptive action could be taken.
Other features of the Tri-Tronics Smart-Eye E-Z Pro Series include quick-disconnect on all models, dual outputs (NPN & PNP), and selectable light/dark operation. The Tri-Tronics Mark-2 Smart-Eye photoelectric sensor is available with infra-red (IR), visible red, white, or blue LED light sources. All models of the Smart-Eye E-Z Pro sensor utilize an interchangeable optical block system, so any basic model in operate in any photo-electric mode merely by changing the optical block. The optical blocks include long range prox, short range prox, convergent beam/fixed focal-point, retro-reflective, and fiber-optic. The fiber-optic mode allows the same sensor to work with fiber-optic cables in fiber-optic prox or fiber-optic through-beam modes.
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