Contactless safety switch

• US 6,212,052 B1
• Filed: 09/02/1999
• Issued: 04/03/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: K.A. Schmersal GmbH & Co. KG
• Original Assignee: K.A. Schmersal GmbH & Co. KG
• Inventors: Kuhlmann, Thomas, Heuer, Friedhelm
• Primary Examiner(s): Jackson, Stephen W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): RIOS CUEVAS, ROBERTO JOSE
• Application Number:
  US09/388,683
• Time in Patent Office: 579 Days
• Field of Search: 361/160, 361/144, 361/179, 361/180, 307/116
• US Class Current: 361/160
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/97 using a magnetic movable element
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2017/9706 Inductive element
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/94015 Mechanical, e.g. by displacement of a body, a shielding element, or a magnet, in or out of the sensing area

Abstract

The invention relates to a contactless safety switch for detecting the shut position of a shutting part in relation to a closeable part, with a switch unit, supplied with current by an electrical supply source on one of the parts and with a trip arranged on the other part and comprising a magnet. In this case, the switch unit comprises a transmission circuit with a clock-signal generator and with a transmission coil, a receiver circuit connected to an evaluation unit and having at least one receiver coil and also a Hall sensor responding to the magnet, and the trip comprises a trip coil which is capable, in the shut position, of being excited inductively by the transmission coil and exciting the receiver coil, while, in the shut position, the evaluation unit triggers a clearance path when the Hall sensor is activated via the magnet.

Claims

1. A contactless safety switch for detecting the shut position of a shutting part in relation to a closeable part, comprising:

a switch unit, supplied with current by an electrical supply source on one of said parts; and

a trip arranged on the other part and comprising a magnet;

wherein said switch unit comprises a transmission circuit with a clock-signal generator and with a transmission coil;

wherein said switch unit further comprises a receiver circuit connected to an evaluation unit and having at least one receiver coil; and

wherein said switch unit also comprises a Hall sensor responding to the magnet;

said trip comprising a trip coil which, in the shut position, is capable of being excited inductively by a transmission coil and exciting the receiver coil, whilst, in the shut position, the evaluation unit, after comparing the transmitted and received clock signals, triggers a clearance path when the Hall sensor is activated via the magnet.

2. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein in the shut position, two signals are capable of being fed to the evaluation unit which triggers the clearance path only when the two signals are present in the evaluation unit.

3. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation unit is followed by an, in particular, two-channel relay stage, via which the clearance path can be enabled.

4. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein two receiver coils are provided, which is capable of being coupled inductively to the trip coil, the clearance path being capable of being enabled only when a signal is delivered in each case by the two receiver coils and no signal was present beforehand.

5. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein a switch capable of being actuated via the Hall sensor is provided in the transmission circuit, the clock signal generated by the clock-signal generator being capable of being enabled via the Hall sensor to the receiver coil.

6. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein the transmission circuit is connected to the evaluation unit.

7. The safety switch according to one of claim 1, wherein the receiver coil is capable to be inductively coupled to the trip coil indirectly, the trip comprising a trip receiver circuit—

comprising the trip coil—

and a trip transmission circuit coupled to the said trip receiver circuit and capable of being coupled inductively to the receiver coil.

8. The safety switch according to claim 7, wherein the trip transmission circuit is coupled to the trip receiver circuit via a modifying circuit, in such a way that the trip transmission circuit transmits a modified clock signal.

9. The safety switch according to claim 8, wherein the clock signal generated by the clock-signal generator and the modified clock signal received by the receiver circuit is capable of being fed to the evaluation unit which triggers the clearance path when the two clock signals are in a predetermined frequency ratio.

10. The safety switch according to claim 8, wherein the evaluation unit comprises two parallel-connected pulse-shaping and counting stages, of which one is designed for conditioning and adding the clock signal generated by the clock-signal generator and one is designed for conditioning and adding the modified clock signal.

11. The safety switch according to claim 10, wherein the evaluation unit comprises a comparator stage which follows the pulse-shaping and counting stages and which transmits an output signal only when the counts of the pulse-shaping and counting stages are in a predetermined frequency ratio.

12. The safety switch according to claim 11, wherein a signal capable of being enabled via the Hall sensor is capable of being fed to the relay stage via one channel and the output signal of the comparator stage is capable of being fed to the relay stage via another channel, the clearance path being capable of being enabled by the relay stage only when a signal is present at the two channels and no signal was present beforehand at the two channels.

13. The safety switch according to claim 5, wherein the clock signal which is generated by the clock-signal generator and which is capable of being enabled via the Hall sensor is capable of being fed to the relay stage via one input and the modified clock signal received by the receiver circuit is capable of being fed to the relay stage via another channel, the clearance path being capable of being enabled by the relay stage only when a signal is present in each case at the two channels and no signal was present beforehand at the two channels.

14. The safety switch according to claim 11, wherein the comparator stage is capable of interrogating the counts of the pulse-shaping and counting stages in each case after a suitably selected constant time interval.

15. The safety switch according to claim 14, wherein the comparator stage is capable of transmitting an output signal to the relay stage only when the counts of the pulse-shaping and counting stages differ from one another by a predetermined value.

16. The safety switch according to claim 8, wherein the modifying circuit is a frequency divider which divides down a clock signal received from the trip receiver circuit by a predetermined factor.

17. The safety switch according to claim 16, wherein the pulse-shaping and counting stage is interrogated only after a time interval longer than that of the pulse-shaping and counting stage by the factor of the modifying circuit and the comparator stage transmits an output signal to the relay stage only when the two counts received are identical.

18. The safety switch according to claim 16, wherein the pulse-shaping and counting stages are capable of balancing the different frequency of the generated clock signal and modified clock signal by means of different modulation.

19. The safety switch according to claim 8, wherein the modifying circuit is designed in such a way that the frequency difference between the clock signal generated by the clock-signal generator and the modified clock signal is large in relation to the frequency of the clock signal generated by the clock-signal generator.

20. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein the receiver coil is followed by a bandpass filter which lets through only the, if appropriate, modified clock signal.

21. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation unit is preceded by at least one amplifier.

22. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein the Hall sensor is capable of being balanced.

23. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein the magnet is a permanent magnet.

24. The safety switch according to claim 1, wherein the switch unit is arranged on the closeable part and the trip on the shutting part.