Show Off Your Proximity Smarts and Win

Feb. 27, 2009
To encourage more builder, integrator and user participation in our Real Answers section, we'll award a $100 gift card every quarter to the best, most experience-based builder, integrator or user answer, as chosen by the Control Design editors, that we print and post during each three-month period. Vendors aren't eligible, and all entries must be posted in the Comments section here and emailed to [email protected]. This quarter’s award will be made in June.

To encourage more builder, integrator and user participation in our Real Answers section, we'll award a $100 gift card every quarter to the best, most experience-based builder, integrator or user answer, as chosen by the Control Design editors, that we print and post during each three-month period. Vendors aren't eligible, and all entries must be posted in the Comments section here and emailed to [email protected]. This quarter’s award will be made in June.

Here’s our second question from a machine builder.

We have used proximity switches on our dry material handling machines for a number of years. We are now contemplating an upgrade to programmable proximity switches. This should allow us to improve performance by fine-tuning switch characteristics via software. It should also allow us to stock fewer different types of switches. Are these and other improvements worth the time, the trouble and the expense of upgrading from standard to programmable proximity switches?

About the Author

Mike Bacidore | Editor in Chief

Mike Bacidore is chief editor of Control Design and has been an integral part of the Endeavor Business Media editorial team since 2007. Previously, he was editorial director at Hughes Communications and a portfolio manager of the human resources and labor law areas at Wolters Kluwer. Bacidore holds a BA from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. He is an award-winning columnist, earning multiple regional and national awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He may be reached at [email protected] 

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