PI Series Sanitary Pressure and Level Sensor with Display

The PI1 series pressure sensor is the newest sanitary pressure from ifm with improved diagnostics and performance. The engine of the PI pressure sensor is the ceramic capacitive measuring cell, which is the most robust pressure measurement technology on the market. ifm has used this technology for many years to solve common challenges in the Food and Beverage industry which include reducing mechanical failures due to overpressure or handling, increasing food safety with a direct pressure measurement that does not require fill fluid, and improving service life with ceramic material that doesn’t fatigue.

In addition to the ceramic capacitive measuring cell, the brains of this sensor are optimized to provide the best performing digital measurement signal available. The PI1 series sensor has a 32-bit processor which can provide 20,000+ steps over the measuring range of the sensor, which now makes digital performance better than a high performing 14 bit analog architecture with all the advantages that digital communication over IO-Link brings.

Since the digital IO-Link communication is talking directly to the microcontroller, it can also provide multiple process values and access to all available parameters within the sensor. In the case of the PI1 that means we can provide both pressure and temperature process values over a single wire, which not only reduces wiring but potentially reduces the number of instruments required and effort to install them if a dedicated temperature sensor is replaced.