Absolute Encoders

Absolute Encoders are ideal, cost-effective solutions to many problems faced in motion control and in industrial automation. They are particularly suited for applications where a device is inactive for long periods of time or moves at a slow rate, such as flood gate control, telescopes, cranes, valves, etc., and in machine tooling, printing, paper making and many other industries. Absolute encoders generate a unique binary “word” output for each resolvable shaft position so that each shaft position is fully determined. By using absolute position rather than incremental count data, the shaft position is always known, even after power interruptions or in the presence of electrical noise. System design can also be simplified because there is no need to perform a reference cycle or return to home function to determine the true machine position. Single turn devices with resolutions ranging from 8 bit (256 counts per rev) to 12 bit (4096 counts per rev) are available. You can choose from a variety of formats, including binary or gray code, and from a variety of output types. Also available are innovative hollow bore models that extend the application areas suitable for absolutes.

Absolute encoders utilize multiple tracks and outputs which are read in parallel to a binary representation of the angular position of the shaft. Since there is a one to one correspondence between shaft position and binary output, position data is recovered when power is restored after an outage. Transient measurement noise causes only transient measurement error.