Sensor Technologies Mechatronics Products Case Study Appliances Industry Mobility Medical Engineering
Engineering in Sensor Systems
Customized and project-specific solutions from development to series production
Sensoric tasks relating to filling level, force and path measurement can often be solved by one of three principles: a capacitive, an inductive or a high-frequency procedure. EBE sensors + motion masters all three approaches and has developed its own basic technologies: the platforms capaTEC®, induTEC® and corTEC®.
These proven technologies form the basis for many concrete product developments. Above all, EBE develops powerful, robust, small and high-resolution sensors for different measurement tasks. They can relate to filling level, critical or adhesive media, path, position or deformation.
Furthermore, time-of-flight sensors and radar-technologies are included in the competence spectrum of the EBE development center in Leinfelden-Echterdingen. They measure distances or filling levels and are used for gesture recognition in the area of human-machine interaction resp. for presence detection.
The EBE development center finds a way to series production for your project as well. Find out in this section about available solutions and ask the EBE development center for ideas for your own project.
Comprehensive Approach
When it comes to sensor development EBE goes into depth in order to meet the customers’ requirements in a comprehensive, targeted and economic way. The knowledge of optimum algorithms and signal evaluation procedures is one of the strengths of the development center. Likewise, EBE is capable of the individual and complete planning of PCB-design and electronics assembly, gears and housings, and of in-house electronics manufacturing.
EBE also contributes knowledge of regulatory requirements to customized projects. To give an example, manufacturers have to consider the radiation of high measuring frequencies. The respective safety precautions must be included in the design at an early stage.
Our technology and product development can resort to suitable software, 3D CAD-tools and measurement technology. The measurement technology includes devices such as function and signal generators, spectrum and network analyzers or test benches and climatic chambers.
Thanks to its in-house sample construction and different 3D printing processes EBE covers the complete prototyping so that customers see tangible results at an early development stage.
Against this background EBE is capable of developing and producing specific sensor systems for numerous applications and industrial projects. Possible fields of application are:
- mobility of the future, leisure time mobility, autonomous driving, E-mobility
- automated medical engineering, laboratory equipment, Industry 4.0
- Internet of Things, sensor systems and control in a digitized environment
As part of the development order EBE may first create a study or a functional model. In this way it is possible to decide after a short time how a project might be implemented. Step by step further aspects such as functionality, installation space, energy, interfaces, assurance to meet the environmental requirements, quality and unit costs follow.
In order to develop a perfect product engineers and technicians at EBE work together in agile, interdisciplinary develoment teams. They pool their competences to ensure a 100% implementation of customer requirements.. The end of the process is marked by a product that exactly matches the customer’s planning and meets all stipulations.
Engineering in Mechatronics
Customized and project-specific solutions from development to series production
A successful and long-lived product - no matter how unspectacular it may seem - consists of many parts. Housing, drive, locks and fixings need to be designed. Depending on the application switches, rotary encoders or actuating solenoids may also be required. PCBs and electronics, software and firmware make up the “inner life”.
EBE sensors + motion completely masters these fields of activity. The development center in Leinfelden-Echterdingen particularly covers four areas of engineering: Electronics, software, magnetics and mechanics.
Focus on Application
The development is strictly focused on the application. The customized solutions have to match the planned device and its operating conditions 100%.
Apart from proven technology platforms for sensor systems concepts for control and drive technology are already availabe. They can be flexibly adapted to the application. Specific interfaces or additional functionalities are easy to integrate.
The EBE engineering creates circuit and PCB-designs with professional CAD-tools such as Altium Designer. Sensor elements for measurement systems are designed with the 3D-field simulator CST-Studio Suite. The simulation environments allow to swiftly adapt electrode and coil structures to the customer application.
Careful development work includes ttesting, verification and validation of concepts. For this purpose modern electrical measuring stations such as high-speed real-time oscilloscopes, spectrum and network analyzers are at our disposal.
EBE optimizes mechatronics solutions, among other things, with respect to functionality, installation space, quality and costs. The influences of environmental conditions are tested in climatic chambers.
Agile Working
At EBE engineers and technicians work together in agile, interdisciplinary development teams. Based on this bundled competence EBE develops, among other things
- intelligent modules for machines, furniture, vehicles, work environments
- robust switches for extreme requirements in mining or agriculture
- highly sensitive level, pressure and position sensors including their integration into housing, frame and central electronics
The development competence of EBE can be efficiently used for numerous further mechatronic applications. Projects might be: High-volume products for special vehicles and devices for leisure time, components for electric and autonomous vehicles or heavy-duty applications in industry.
The EBE development center finds a way to series production for your project as well. Find out in this section about available solutions and ask the EBE development center for ideas for your own project.
Wide Portfolio
Proven Solution Approaches for Individual Product Developments
Why reinvent the wheel? The diversified application and product portfolio of EBE sensors + motion offers proven and adaptable approaches for many tasks.
Existing solutions can be quickly modified, thus gaining additional value. The further development of sensors, actuators and mechatronics benefits from the rich experience of the EBE development center.
Find out here about existing products and ask the EBE development center for ways to modify your own project or application.
- Proven level sensor technology for new applications in life sciences, medical, laboratory or agricultural engineering.
- Sports and leisure applications benefit from the robust human-machine interfaces which EBE has developed for construction machines and agriculture.
- Intelligent door opening modules upgrade the furniture in shops or simplify work in special logistics applications.
- In an interconnected world the range of applications of solenoids, pressure and position sensors is also growing rapidly.
How to Create the Perfect Door Opening Module
Case Study: Agile Product Development at EBE sensors + motion
The Starting Point
Handleless kitchens are trendy. In order to open cabinets with flat fronts spring elements are used. This does not work with large appliances such as dishwashers. In closed state the door must be firmly locked and pressed to the sealing lip to avoid the leakage of water during the washing process.
Three Customer Wishes
The goal of the product development presented below is a special door lock for a manufacturer of dishwashers in the premium segment. The lock shall meet three requirements:
- 2. Push-to-Open Dishwasher Lock for Handleless Kitchens
In a handleless kitchen a light touch unlocks and opens the door. The dishwasher then acts like a cabinet door. - 1. Conventional Dishwasher Lock with Dry-Opening Module
The power consumption of dishwashers decreases if the door opens after the rinsing process is finished. The humid air escapes and the drying temperatures inside the appliance can be lowered.
For an improved energy balance of the appliance the manufacturer requests a dry-opening module which automatically opens the lock if a control signal is received. - 3. Pull-to-Open Dishwasher Lock with Comfort Function
If the model features a handle the door lock shall detect if the user pulls the handle. Then it is expected to unlock and open the door. This reduces the effort required.
The Development Process Begins
At this point it is crucial for EBE to achieve a deep common understanding of the requirements and expectations with respect to the product. The requirements of both the customer and the end user are in the focus now. From the project launch the EBE-team puts great emphasis on an intensive exchange with the product management of the customer.
The agile development process stipulates that the whole project team defines the requirements and creates the specifications. The team includes
- project leaders and engineers
- the responsible employees from sales, production, purchasing, quality management
At an early stage of conception and development they discuss many issues with the customer.
Among other things, they precisely define the dimensions of the installation space. In their discussions it becomes clear that the installation space can still be slightly adapted at this stage. In this way the door lock can be designed more efficiently which reduces manufacturing costs.
The Way to Perfect Design and Optimum Function
When it comes to product development the EBE-team first resorts to its basic technologies and wealth of experience available. EBE develops and produces mostly customized systems and can so evaluate many different possible solutions.
The technologies were created by intensive basic development at EBE. Our knowledge is considered as unique. The basic technologies help to design new systems and adapt them to individual requests and applications. Customer-specific optimization follows the principle: As good as necessary, as economic as possible.
In this case the mechanical design is assigned the task of developing a lock system with two functions:
- On the one hand, it must be easy to unlock.
- On the other hand, it has to pull the door in closed state to the sealing lip.
The technological toolbox provides the appropriate gear technology and magnetics for this case. Our special expertise allows for the perfect combination of gear and solenoid.
Use of Powerful and Fast Development Tools
The development team devotes itself intensely to the powertrain through which the actuator affects the lock system.
- The design is made by means of a modern 3D CAD-systems.
- furthermore, a system for FEM-simulation is available in-house. The simulation serves to ideally design single components.
A lifting solenoid is chosen as the actuator. It can be customized for this application. EBE has many years of experience in the design of solenoids. The complete development is made in-house.
Next, the Rapid Prototyping process follows. With the help of 3D-printers our team produces the first sample parts. Shortly after the development has started all people involved can (in every sense of the word) grasp a model of the door lock. The team checks the assembly situation and coordinates further optimizations with the customer.
Sensor Development Based on Proven Technology
In the field of electronics the first task is to develop a sensor system to recognize the door movement. The system must detect the push and pull movement which users perform by the comfort functions push-to-open and pull-to-open.
The basic technology induTEC® developed by EBE offers a solution. It is a proven inductive distance measuring system which was developed and examined by EBE in the course of our intense basic development.
In the inductive sensor a metal component slides over a PCP-coil. The induTEC® switching detects the resulting change of inductivity and evaluates it.
By means of 3D-field simulation the coil structure can be ideally designed with respect to the electro-magnetic behavior.
Furthermore, electronic developers and designers are in close contact. They have to consider the interactions between the mechanical setup and the resulting trajectory of the metal target and the inductive coupling of the sensor element.
PCB Design and Software Adaptation
The circuit and PCB design are created by means of professional CAD-tools. In this process the team considers further customer requirements, current norms and cost issues. At an early stage the development center lays the foundation for an efficient and quality-oriented production by cooperating with the PCB manufacturing at EBE.
The basic technologies include proven software platforms with an adaptive architecture. In this case the development team uses the software to control the induTEC® system and to evaluate the information. The door functions can be operated directly from the platform.
The connection to the dishwasher, however, is achieved by a proprietary bus. The software developer implements its protocol within the framework of the project and integrates it into the basic software.
Extensive Tests for Parameterization
The change of inductivity which the induTEC® system detects in case of an opening request is subject to different influences. It does not only depend on the door lock itself. To give an example, the compressibility of the sealing gasket influences the achievable path in push-to-open operation.
This is why the opening module is subjected to a series of tests in which measurement data are collected. A large part of sensor development consists in the recording of such measurement data. On their basis the application-specific parameterization of the evaluation algorithm is performed.
EBE has software packages for the recording and evaluation of vast amounts of measuring data. Both commercial software packages such as Matlab and a self-developed tool suite are used for this purpose. This tool suite was optimized for the challenges and tasks of the development of mechatronic and sensory systems.
In the current project the software records numerous opening requests. EBE uses as many test persons as possible to gain a wide database. The test persons must work on predefined workflows. In this way EBE gathers a clean database.
Parallel to the development and during the complete project term an FMEA is carried out. In this way potential sources of error can be detected and eliminated at an early stage.
Comprehensive Quality Assurance
Throughout the whole project term the performance features of the system are continuously checked. EBE plans and produces the required test benches in its own development center.
- These test benches allow for endurance runs. This means that a pneumatically driven test bench can examine the specified number of door openings.
- n-house climatic chambers expose the modules to harsh temperature and humidity influences.
- he mechanical dimensional accuracy is also tested on an in-house measuring machine.
- force-path test benches check if the module complies with the required opening and closing forces.
At the end of the development project a complete verification and validation of the requirements in the specifications is carried out. The test specifications are defined within the framework of the requirement analysis and coordinated with the customer.
Individually Co-ordinated Production
Both the PCB-assembly and the assembly of the complete modules takes place at EBE. As the products are customer-specific the production facilities and test benches have to be individually prepared.
Production and quality management are involved at an early stage of development. Meanwhile they have been able to plan an efficient and economic production that meets highest quality requirements. EBE develops the production process parallel to the product development and continuously evaluates it in a P-FMEA.
Furthermore, internal requirements which EBE implements in all production lines are integrated into the production concept. These include for example
- a defined system of serial numbers
- batch tracking of critical single components
- the storage of production process parameters based upon a database
In this case the decision to build up a semi-automatic production line is taken as part of the planning. Manufacturing costs and the expected quantities are weighed against each other. In case of high-volume assemblies fully-automatic facilities are also used.
Finally the Perfect Product
The end of the process is marked by a product that exactly matches the original requests and comprehensively meets all requirements.
We are only Satisfied if our Customers are Satisfied.
New Comfort Functions
Appliances are becoming more intelligent - thanks to individual solutions by EBE
Technology makes life more convenient. Especially in appliances modern technology can be extremely useful behind the scenes.
- It allows for the reliable, contactless and hygienic control of filling levels of viscous or contaminated media.
- It can support the handleless opening and closing of furniture, refrigerators or dishwashers.
- It enables magic touch-through control panels and elegant energy-saving functions.
Appliance manufacturers are always searching for such new, surprising comfort functions and design solutions. The providers of related applications also like to integrate added value to gain a competitive edge. These include suppliers of
- entertainment centers or
- smart home controls.
For this wealth of ideas the market players find a competent technology, development and production partner in Leinfelden-Echterdingen: EBE sensors + motion.
EBE swiftly transforms ideas into concrete products ready for series production. We have the experience to develop specific components and integrate them into one solution. This includes the required sensor and actuator systems, electronics, software and mechanics.
Just one example: As one of only a few manufacturers worldwide EBE offers a technology which is both up to the requirements of measurement systems for viscous liquids and suitable for volume production.
The robust level sensors measure through walls and require minimum installation space. In this way product designers gain optimum freedom of design. EBE develops design, electronics, interfaces and further features of the sensor system according to the parameters and specifications of the customer resp. of the planned device.
Find out here about new comfort functions for appliances and ask the EBE development center for ideas for your own project.
If it has to be Analog or Digital
Customer-Specific Development of Actuators, Switches and Rotary Encoders for Industrial Use
In spite of digitization: Even in the future this and that will still have to be analog or conventionally electric. Certain switches, buttons, encoders and actuating solenoids will be required furtheron. Proven actuators and rotary encoders may even have to be adapted for a project and manufactured in small volumes.
EBE sensors + motion offers designers the opportunity to select from a rich portfolio of switches, buttons, encoders and actuating solenoids. All products can be modified for individual requirements.
For many further applications in automation and machine construction EBE designs individual sensor systems and mechatronic solutions. Among other things EBE’s contributions are
- The development and manufacturing of robust human-machine interfaces
- Specific solutions to support factory digitization resp. to determine production data
- Solutions for the machine-to-machine communication.
- Mechatronic solutions such as actuator technology
Wherever sensors and input interfaces exist there tends to be a demand for actuator technology. The increasing degree of automation also boosts the demand for combined solutions in sensor and actuator technology. For these purposes EBE develops integrated solutions with focus on the individual situation.
Find out about further performance characteristics on the sector site industry and ask the EBE development center for ideas concerning your own project.
Autonomous Driving with Added Value
Customer-Specific Development of Solutions for the Mobility of the Future
The car drives towards its destination by itself. And now? The driver could use this time to work. A table plate extends from the cockpit and offers support for a tablet or laptop. Or it might even have an integrated touch display with automatic opening module, radio and Internet connection.
What moves the table plate resp. the touch display? EBE sensors + motion offers the solution.
The development of application-specific drives and mechatronic systems has been one of the competences of the EBE development center for decades. It is located in the heart of the automotive region Stuttgart. Therefore, the mobility of the future offers a field of action in which EBE can provide any kind of support.
At the same time the EBE development center offers a proven portfolio of flexible to use sensor and actuator systems for vehicles, including products for the heavy-duty segment. The portfolio of sensor and actuator systems is suitable for applications such as the measurement of
- linear positions and rotation angles
- compressive forces or deformations
- filling levels of liquids in storage tanks
EBE can develop an individual solution for each mobility application or each vehicle model from its portfolio. EBE sensors for mobility applications are:
- touchless
- contactless
- wear-free
- long-term stable
- resistant to humidity
- temperature-stable
- immune to interference
- highly precise
- and they ensure stable applications everywhere
The development and production program is compliant with ISO/TS 16949. This ensures that the high quality requirements of the automotive and commercial vehicle manufacturers are fulfilled.
Find out on the industry site mobility about further performance features and ask the EBE development center for ideas concerning your own project.
Monitoring Critical Positions and Liquids
Customer-Specific Development of Sensor Systems for Medicine
The monitoring of devices is a vital task in medical engineering. Here sensible technologies can support professionals, reduce operating costs and save lives.
- Thus, there is a vast amount of situations that require an automatic and reliable state and position detection.
- Filling levels and movements of critical, viscous or fat liquids require faultless recognition, fully-automatic and sterile measurement or digital communication.
For each application idea EBE sensors + motion develops the pragmatic solution. The portfolio of available technologies, proven products and interdisciplinary competences allows specific and fast developments in each case. In particular sensory, mechatronic, mechanic and electromotive technologies are available in cooperation.
As an OEM-partner EBE integrates the sensor technology and mechatronics into the respective application and equips it with the requested interfaces. Among other areas the range of services includes the fields of electronics and embedded software.
Find out about further performance features on the industry site medical engineering and ask the EBE development center for ideas concerning your own project.
