Product Overview

The 3RG4143-6AD00​ is a legacy M18 cylindrical inductive proximity switch from Pepperl+Fuchs’ 3RG4 economy series, widely deployed across European-built machinery from the mid-2000s through the 2010s. It detects the presence of ferrous and non-ferrous metal targets without contact, using the eddy-current principle: an oscillator drives a coil in the sensor’s front face, a metal target approaching the face dampens the oscillation, and the ASIC triggers the output. In plain terms, the 3RG4143-6AD00​ is the “is the cylinder extended?” or “did the dial index to station 3?” sensor on thousands of packaging machines, bottling lines, automotive weld-cells, and conveyor systems where an M18 thread + 4 mm sn + PNP NO is the universal spec.Physically, the 3RG4143-6AD00​ is a brass-nickel M18×1 cylinder, ~60 mm long (sensor body) + ~15 mm threaded nut zone, with a 2 m PVC-jacketed 3-core cable exiting the rear (brown = +24 V, blue = 0 V, black = PNP NO output). The sensing face is the front disc (epoxy-sealed), the LED indicator (switching status) is visible through the face. It mounts via the M18×1 thread + the supplied nickel-plated brass nut (max tightening torque 5 N·m per P+F 3RG4 family mechanicals), either flush (齐平)​ — recessed into a metal bracket so the face is flush with the bracket surface, which reduces the effective sn to ~3.2 mm but lets you mount it against a steel plate without false-trigger — or non-flush (非齐平)​ — the face protrudes 2–3 mm from the bracket, giving the full 4 mm sn but requiring ≥4× sensor diameter (72 mm) clearance from surrounding steel on the sides (the “reduction factor” for adjacent steel kicks in at <15 mm side clearance per 3RG4 datasheets).Because the 3RG4143-6AD00​ is discontinued, plants running 2005–2015 P+F-sensorized machinery (German OEMs: Krones, KHS, Bosch Packaging, Grob, Schuler, etc.) will hit “spare obsolete” during a 5-year PM cycle. The pragmatic path: pull a tested-surplus 3RG4143-6AD00​ for like-for-like swap (preserves the machine’s BOM, PLC symbol, and the mechanic’s muscle memory: “M18 PNP 4 mm 2m cable”), or cross to NBB5-18GM50-E2-V1 (PNP NO, 5 mm sn, M18, 2 m cable) — sn changes from 4→5 mm, which matters if the target is a 6 mm steel flag at 4 mm gap (NBB will see it earlier, may need to back the sensor off 1 mm). More on the cross in “Related Products.”

Technical Specifications

Main Features and Advantages

“Discontinued but everywhere” — the 3RG4 economy story. The 3RG4143-6AD00​ was P+F’s volume M18 PNP NO 4 mm sku for 15+ years. Why it dominated German OEM machinery: the 3RG4 line traded the premium features of P+F’s “F” series (IO-Link, programmable sn, weld-field immune coil, PTFE face for spot-weld slag) for a stripped-back BOM that still delivered IP67, 2000 Hz, built-in protections, and P+F’s coil/winding reliability. For a bottling-line star-wheel with 12 stations × 2 sensors (star-home + bottle-present) = 24× M18 prox on one carousel — the plant isn’t paying for IO-Link on a home-sensor; they’re paying for “works 3-shift, 350 days/year, 10 years.” The 3RG4143-6AD00​ did that at ~40–50% of the F-series price. Now that it’s discontinued, the NBB series (next paragraph) is the modern equivalent, but NBB list price is ~20–30% higher — hence why tested-surplus 3RG4143-6AD00 remains the pragmatic choice for plants with 50+ installed across the floor.2000 Hz switching frequency = high-speed capable. The 3RG4143-6AD00‘s 2000 Hz rating means it can reliably detect a target passing at ~4–6 ms dwell time (1/2000 = 0.5 ms per cycle, but you need ~4–5 cycles to guarantee a clean edge, so ~2–2.5 ms min target dwell). On a high-speed bottle capper (36000 bph = 10 bottles/sec, star-wheel pocket passes the prox every 100 ms — easy), or a high-speed dial-indexer (60 indexes/min = 1 Hz — trivial), the 3RG4143-6AD00​ is nowhere near its limit. Where 2000 Hz does matter: high-speed tooth-wheel speed-pickup (60-tooth wheel at 2000 rpm = 2000 pulses/sec = 2 kHz, bang on the limit — the 3RG4143-6AD00​ can do it, but you’d spec a dedicated speed-prox (P+F 3RG6 or F-series) for margin). For general position (cylinder end-of-stroke, gate-open, pallet-present), 2000 Hz is massive overkill and that’s fine — it won’t be the bottleneck.Built-in protections as default, not option. The 3RG4143-6AD00​ has short-circuit, overload, reverse-polarity, and inductive overvoltage protection + spurious switch-on pulse suppression — all built into the ASIC. This matters on the floor: a mechanic swaps a failed prox during a midnight callout, tired, wires brown/blue reversed (24 V on blue, 0 V on brown) — the 3RG4143-6AD00​ doesn’t die, it just doesn’t switch (reverse-polarity blocks the output stage). He catches it at power-up (LED doesn’t blink when he waves a wrench), flips the wires, done — sensor survives. Compare to a no-name M18 prox at 1/3 the price: reverse-polarity = ASIC pops, sensor dead, second truck roll at 02:00. The 5× price difference pays for itself on the 2nd wrong-wire incident.Brass-nickel + IP67 = washdown-tolerant. The 3RG4143-6AD00​ housing is brass with nickel plating (not stainless 1.4305 — that’s the 3RG4111/4121 series, M8/M12). Nickel-plating handles the CIP splash and occasional caustic spray in food/beverage auxiliary (conveyor drives, palletizer gripper position) — not the washdown inside the filler (that’s stainless NBB or NCN), but the around the filler (conveyor stub, combiner, depalletizer). IP67 means the 2 m PVC cable gland (rear potting) holds against temporary immersion — if the CIP hose bursts and floods the conveyor frame for 10 minutes, the 3RG4143-6AD00​ survives; a cheap prox with a loose rear potting takes water up the 3-core, the +24 V wicks 2 m up the strands to the PLC input card, and you lose a 16-point DI module. Seen it.