Vishay Intertechnology recently announced that its Vishay Sfernice division is offering alternative parts for industrial potentiometers that Honeywell International Inc. issued a product obsolescence notice for on August 5, 2019.
Panel potentiometers are variable resistors that are mounted behind the front panel in a variety of equipment. They frequently feature buttons mounted on their shafts for applications such as setting the brightness of a screen or the speed of a tooling machine. Typical end products include off-road tractors, excavators, and cranes; avionic overhead panels; syringe pumps; and wide range industrial equipment.
While most potentiometers are delivered as custom solutions by both Vishay and Honeywell, Vishay offers close alternatives to the obsoleted devices. The table below shows affected Honeywell, formerly Clarostat product families, their corresponding Vishay potentiometers, and comments about potential differences between the two.
Alternative devices from Vishay include the P11S and P11A 12.55 mm modular panel potentiometers with cermet and conductive plastic resistive elements which are nearly full equivalents to the Honeywell 309 / 409 / 591 and 308 / 408 / 509 series respectively. The PRV4 industrial potentiometer; the fully sealed PRV6; and the heavy duty RV4L are options to be evaluated as alternatives to the RV4 / 385 / 53C / 485, the 392 / RV6, and the 380 series, respectively.
