Whether you are a machine builder interested in reducing the total cost of your machine or an end-user trying to keep your machine operational on a daily basis, the selection of control components can directly impact your success. This is even more true when it comes to the selection of status indicators in your process. It is also important for workers like operators, fork truck drivers, maintenance, and management to clearly and visually understand the status of their workstation, their next load, their next fix or understand the bottlenecks in the production. In these types of applications a stack light or HMI is typically integrated to communicate the status of the process. By using a software-configurable smart light to indicate machine status, you can simplify the visual indication with a single part number that costs less than most HMIs.

The Balluff smart light can be connected to virtually any industrial network via the open and universal standard, IO-Link. This device can be used with a variety of IP67 distributed modular I/O products offered from a variety of IO-Link vendors which eliminates the need to have a remote I/O box simply to control an indicator light. Balluff’s smart light can function in any of three modes, can be configured on the fly, and is controlled using simple bitmaps for the outputs.

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