End Position Sensors In Hospital Beds And Other Mobility Equipment

Introduction

There are a large number of applications requiring the detection of end limit position, where electric shock can be a real concern.  Hospital beds, for example, need end position limits when adjusting the bed position.  Reed Sensors are ideal in this application because they reliably pass very low level voltages and currents well under any potential power that could cause a shock.  Mechanical limit switches have been used successfully in the past, but can fail prematurely because they need a higher level of power to operate properly.  Mechanical sensors exposed to the environment will develop film on the contacts.  To break through these films, higher switching voltages may be necessary.  These higher voltages are not ideal in a hospital bed environment.  Now designers have turned to the Reed Sensor which uses hermetically sealed reed switches, which are ideal for switching low signal levels reliably.

Full Application Write Up