Employing Intelligent Sensors Simplifies Calibration Procedures and Reduces the Running Costs of Monitoring Systems

Tecnosoft develops and manufactures instruments used for quality control of processes and for monitoring goods in the food and pharmaceutical industries and has developed a wide range of temperature, some of which operate up to 140°C, and humidity data loggers.

Instruments and sensors that are used to monitor the production, quality and conservation of products must be calibrated or verified periodically (usually once a year). The re-calibration process of a thermometer, for example, implies that the instrument must be shipped to a calibration centre, whether within or external to the company itself, that will carry out the calibration. Some instruments can only be verified, without automatically adjusting the measurements, whilst others may also be adjusted, such that the values read are automatically corrected within the stated accuracy. Moreover, some processes, such as in the thermal mapping of a warehouse, require periodic on-site measurements, and these verifications will normally imply a restricted range of measurement.

Tecnosoft has developed miniature circuitry (microcircuits) in order to be able to obtain sensors that may be easily and accurately calibrated, called intelligent sensors.

The microcircuit converts the analog input into a digital output and corrects the measurement according to a calibration curve that has been previously stored: it then transmits the reading already converted and corrected. All that has to be done is supply the circuit in order to obtain the converted, calibrated data in digital form and in the desired units. Each intelligent sensor (consisting of an analog sensor and microcircuit) is supplied with its own calibration certificate. Tecniosoft also provides a calibration service and will supply the customer with a new intelligent sensor that is already calibrated. The customer will then simply disconnect the old one and replace it with the new one: in this way the monitoring process will never be interrupted. The sensor whose calibration date has expired will be sent back to Tecnosoft for recalibration.

If measuring instruments are used (such as data loggers), the microcircuit circuit acts simply as an annex to the connection cable. If the sensors are applied to more complex systems and equipment, as for OEM Customers, the circuit can be also inserted in the sensor connector. Tecnosoft offers an evaluation kit intended for OEM Customers that wish to apply the intelligent sensor solution to their own equipment and systems.