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A stainless part at a conveyor stop

The clamp only closes when the part really sits on the stop. With stainless parts the sensor has to be set differently.

11 October 2026 · Andrii Shylenko

3D station: belt conveyor feeding a mechanical stop, the IG6214 at the stop switched ON, an ifm AL1100 master with the cable to the sensor, control cabinet behind — Belt, stop, IG6214 at the stop, AL1100 master on the machine. Turn it, press Run and watch the sensor switch each time a part is held. Open it in the studio.

The problem

Parts ride a belt to a mechanical stop, and a clamp or robot acts when one arrives. The parts are stainless. An inductive sensor set for steel sees them too late or not at all, so the clamp either waits forever or closes on nothing.

The station

Sensor ifm IG6214, M18 inductive, IO-Link, port class A
Master ifm AL1100, 4 ports, PROFINET, mounted on the machine
Port X1, M12 A-coded cable: 6.1 m route, 10 m ordered

Wiring: the master with the sensor on port X1 and the free ports — Wiring: IG6214 on X1, three ports free.

Port table with live value, process data layout, cycle time and settings — Ports, while running: SSC1 in bit 0, distance in the upper 16 bits, 3.2 ms cycle.

The settings that matter

Setting	Value	Why	Datasheet / IODD
Target material	stainless	The switch point is set in steel terms.	Correction: steel 1, stainless 0.7, brass 0.5, aluminium 0.5, copper 0.4
Switching point	3 mm at the part, 4.29 mm written	3 mm / 0.7 = 4.29 mm steel-equivalent	IO-Link switch point 1.4 to 7 mm, so stainless reaches 0.98 to 4.9 mm
Output	normally open, PNP	24 V while a part is held	NO/NC and PNP/NPN parameterisable

Type 6 mm on stainless and the studio stops you: it needs 8.57 mm steel-equivalent, and the sensor only goes to 7. The IODD gives the switch point as raw 400 to 3800 without a unit; the studio maps it linearly onto the datasheet's 1.4 to 7 mm, so read the value back once at commissioning.

Run it

Run mode in the studio: IG6214 OUT1 switched, 24 V on the pin, process data 03 39 00 01, trace of OUT1 over 24 s — A part is held at the stop: OUT1 switched, 24 V on C/Q, process data `03 39 00 01`. Bit 0 is SSC1.

What you get

The commissioning file has every port: validation IDs, cycle time, data storage, and each parameter as ISDU index, subindex and raw value. This is port X1 from the real file, trimmed to the fields that matter:

{
  "port": 1, "mode": "iolink", "tag": "B1",
  "device": {
    "part": "IG6214", "vendor_id": 310, "device_id": 1344,
    "validation": "type_compatible", "data_storage": "backup_restore",
    "cycle_time_ms": {"device_min": 3.2, "recommended": 3.2},
    "parameters": [
      {"name": "Switching point", "value": 4.2857, "unit": "mm", "index": 60, "subindex": 1, "raw": 2152, "raw_hex": "08 68"},
      {"name": "Output function", "value": "normally open", "index": 61, "subindex": 1, "raw": 0, "raw_hex": "00"},
      {"name": "Switching output", "value": "PNP", "index": 500, "subindex": 0, "raw": 0, "raw_hex": "00"}
    ]
  }
}

Download: commissioning file (JSON) · CSV · station report (PDF)

Three pages of the PDF station report: cover with the 3D layout, ports and process data, parameter writes — The station report, printed from the studio: cover with the 3D layout, ports and process data, and the parameter writes. Two more pages have the bill of materials and the installer checklist.

Buy and install. One button in the studio sends the station to us. We reply with a price and an install date, buy the parts, mount and wire them, and write the settings on site. No payment is taken in the studio.

Open this station in the studio

The same station comes out of ChatGPT with the iolinki connector (https://mcp.iolinki.com/mcp, setup on the MCP page): describe the job and it builds, checks and shows the station in the chat.

Sources

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