New Guises, Protections for Industrial PCs

By Jim Montague, Executive editor

To paraphrase Mr. Twain, reports of the demise of the industrial computer have been greatly exaggerated. Sure, recent technical advances are making the desktop PC-in-a-box and many of its traditional capabilities unrecognizable. However, there remain many applications in which operators need screen-based HMIs on or close to machines, production lines or other systems. So rather than eliminating the need for industrial PCs (IPCs) and enclosures, diversifying computing capabilities are fueling an increasing variety of new industrial computing form factors.

Evolution and Diversification

“There’s a lot of confusion in the market these days about what constitutes an industrial computer. Everyone even uses the word ‘ruggedized’ in different ways. So, we try to define an industrial PC by how well it matches its application.” says Ed Boutilier, president and CEO of Stealth Computer Corp. (www.stealthcomputer.com).

 “What makes an IPC worthwhile is an application’s downtime expense, and this is based on how much it will cost a user to replace the PC itself and how long it will take to transfer its data over to the new PC.”

Figure 1. A user performing real-time flood monitoring and alert services is using UNO-2053E and ADAM-4017 to remotely check water-level sensors in Malaysia’s rivers, and broadcast warnings when high water levels occur.

Mike Berryman, market development director in Advantech Corp.’s (www.advantech.com) industrial automation group, explains, “The transformation of industrial PCs from desktops to all the variants we’re seeing now is caused by open computing technologies—such as Ethernet and Intel’s processors—being driven from commercial settings and into the industrial space. This is why things are moving so fast now. PCs can now use Flash memory to run at 2 GHz without a fan or other moving parts, which improves reliability, lets PCs be located on DIN rails and even lets them look like PLCs. In the past five years, Intel’s low-power, low-heat Centrino processors have allowed builders to put a heat sink on their PCs and run at 60 °C to 70 °C without a fan.”

In addition, while the emergence of Flash memory might seems to bad news for those traditionally devoted to protecting rotating media, Boutilier explains it’s actually good news because it makes IPCs more affordable than ever, enabling  users to take computing into new applications, most of which will need some level of protection. For instance, Stealth’s Little PCs are small, fanless units that can be machine-mounted directly. 

Monitoring Wind Power, Metallurgy, Envionments

End users are employing Advantech Corp.’s UNO industrial computers to migrate from larger computers to smaller PCs in a variety of applications. The firm reported on them at its recent 2007 World Partner Conference in Shanghai, China. For example, a 5,600-megawatt wind power generation facility in Germany recently used Advantech’s UNO-2160 embedded automation PC to monitor the status of its generator and communications with its field-based PLCs and fieldbus equipment. This fanless PC checks and controls the generator’s turbines and stores data in a small database.

A Malaysia-based user performing real-time flood monitoring and alert services is using UNO-2053E and ADAM-4017 to remotely check water-level sensors in local rivers and broadcast pre-recorded warnings when high water levels are reached (see Figure 1). Finally, one of the largest rolled-aluminum producers in the U.S. updated its HMI software using UNO-2053 to deploy Microsoft’s Terminal Server technology. This allowed it replace its former PCs with thin-client terminals running ThinManager software, and communicating via a 100 Mbps fiber network.

Preserving Protection

To give users the access they want, but maintain the seals and protection they need, Nathan Espinosa, Hoffman’s (www.hoffman.com) product manager, reports his company’s enclosures are adding USB ports, an access door right to the CD drive, touchscreens instead of keyboards and pushbuttons, and more displays on pedestals and pendant arms, so workstations won’t have to sit on the floor. “As PCs get smaller and thinner, as they’re mounted in more different ways and locations, and as they gain more entry points, all of these create the need for more different types of protections,” says Espinosa. “For example, we just got a new Amada press in for our own metal stampings, and it still has its stand-up floor cabinet, but the PC sent to run it is in an HMI frame installed in the top of the cabinet.”