OMRON Develops Bacteria Reducing Inductive Sensor for Food and Pharmaceutical Industry Applications.

Tokyo, Japan, Nov 2, 2005 - (JCN Newswire) - OMRON has expanded its sensor portfolio for the food and pharmaceutical industries with the introduction of the first inductive proximity sensor with a special anti-bacterial housing, helping food and pharmaceuticals processors in their efforts to reduce the risk of contamination. The innovative housing has been developed in cooperation with performance plastics specialist Ensinger, and actively reduces the number of bacteria and germs on its housing through an FDA approved additive.

Food processing is an industry characterised by a focus on hygiene and absolute cleanliness, but even so micro-organisms can quickly build up on equipment after extended periods of downtime, whilst bacteria can flourish in mechanical troublespots on products and systems - such as threads, indents and corners. This increases the risk of contamination of the foods being produced, especially where washdown procedures are not 100% effective. But with the launch of the anti-microbial E2F-D (patent pending) family of inductive proximity sensors, Omron has developed a sensing solution that actively combats the formation of bacteria, so reducing the risk of food contamination.

Effective against a broad range of micro-organisms as bacteria, fungi, algae and viruses, the microbe-reducing performance of the material has been thoroughly tested, but can be most easily demonstrated by looking at the effects of simply touching the housing with an unprotected finger. The multitude of germs and bacteria that are instantly transferred to the housing are almost completely removed after 12 hours. Thus, in food producing plants where good hygiene is already best practise, the anti-microbial housing of the E2F-D provides the reassurance of backup for established cleaning procedures, so increasing the overall reliability of hygienic process standards.

"OMRON already offers reliable sensing solutions for applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries, for example by providing detergent resistant stainless steel housings," says Siegfried Glaser, Managing Director of OMRON Manufacturing of Germany and the European Sensor Business Unit, both located in Nufringen. "But our goal is to take it a step further to provide total reliability of our customers' processes and machines.

"The cooperation with Ensinger is an example of our strategy to work closely with innovative and leading companies in the automotive, semiconductor and food Industries," continues Mr Glaser. "By combining our experiences we can develop new approaches for our customers that will help them to improve reliability and boost productivity."

Since introducing its first inductive proximity sensor back in 1959, OMRON has become a leading global manufacturer, building many millions of cylindrical inductive sensors every year.

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