SICK (www.sickusa.com), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of sensors, safety systems and automatic identification products for factory and logistics automation, today announced the UF3 Ultrasonic Fork Sensor – ideal for solving challenging detection applications in the packaging and printing industries.

Modern labeling machines are confronted with countless styles of label materials and surface variants. The new UF3 Ultrasonic Fork Sensor is designed to meet these challenges. This new product augments SICK’s extensive line of fork, contrast, luminescent and color sensors specifically designed for the packaging and printing industries. New technology designed into this unique sensor opens up applications for high performance detection of labels – even for transparent, reflective or metallic labels. The advantage of utilizing an ultrasonic solution is that it measures the material thickness and not the surface remission.

The UF3 Ultrasonic Sensor is part of the company’s innovative WF Fork Sensor portfolio. There is currently one UF3 model available. It offers a 3 mm (0.1 in) sensing range/ fork width, selectable PNP or NPN by wiring, Light/ Dark selection, and M8 4-pin connector. Users can adjust the sensor’s performance by using the +/- buttons on the sensor.