Most people don't think of industrial computers and printers as exciting and new. But they are important. These workhorses form the backbone of many a manufacturing production line. And the vendors in this space have steadily introduced innovations and enhancements for customers that need hardy equipment to withstand extremes in temperature, vibration, noise and dirt.
The industrial setting is notoriously hard on rotating computer components, for example. OEMs are bringing out models that take a variety of approaches to addressing that challenge. Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee) is introducing in August a 15-inch VersaView Panel PC that has a Flash memory drive rather than a hard drive. Flash memory is solid state -- there are no moving parts, lowering the chances of breakdown and extending the lifecycle of the machine in high-vibration environments.
"Vibration hurts hard drives. Flash drives are better in industrial environments," says Paul Whitney, VersaView product manager. Rockwell Automation worked with Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, WA) for several months to develop a version of the Microsoft XP Professional operating system that could run on the Flash drive. Absent this joint development, the only other option would have been to run Microsoft XP Embedded, which would have limited the number of available applications.
"We have a full XP Pro OS. That will allow us to support the full range of applications that a manufacturer would want to use," says Whitney. List prices for the VersaView line run between $2,000 and $6,000 depending on configuration. Rockwell introduced the VersaView line of industrial computers and monitors about three years ago to replace its RAC series.
GE Fanuc Automation (Charlottesville, VA) has also designed industrial PCs to withstand damage from vibration. Introduced in May 2003, the GE Fanuc QuickPanel View & Control industrial PC models are solid-state devices. "There [are] no rotating media or fans for cooling. That gives them longer life," says Paul Daugherty, manager of Industrial Computer Solutions for GE Fanuc Automation. "The QuickPanel lengthens the product lifecycle."
That's important since manufacturers do not tend to replace their industrial PC models every year or two, as is common for PCs used in the office environment. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) office computers are less expensive than their Industrial PC counterparts -- with Industrial PCs ringing in at an average range of $2,000 to $7,000 compared to sub-$2,000 for a good laptop today. And no one wants to disturb an industrial application that is running well without a good reason, a fact of which OEMs are well aware.
Rockwell Automation designed its VersaView from the ground up to provide an easy upgrade path. In most cases, the upgraded panel PC models fit into existing panels without the need to redesign the panels. "VersaView was a drop-in replacement for the RAC line" in most cases, says Whitney. PC technology changes with the wind, but manufacturers cannot be expected to make wholesale replacements every time something new comes along. They tend to replace cautiously, only where strictly necessary.
In July, Rockwell also introduced a six-inch thin client-enabled "brick" computer that works with Automation Control Products' (ACP, Alpharetta, GA) thin client software. Thin clients are another strategy for avoiding hard drive failure due to vibration. Since they run their applications from a central server and have no hard drive, thin clients have no moving parts that can lead to stoppage. In addition, "thin clients have better maintenance and administration," says Scott Allan, marketing manager for computers for Rockwell Automation. "If you need to make a change you do it once at the server."
(Click here for a select list of companies that offer Industrial Computers.)
MANY PRINTERS ARE NOW RFID READY
Meanwhile, industrial printers are generally large, sturdy products whose printing technology is amenable to less than friendly conditions. IBM Corp. (Armonk, NY) has been in the printing business for 45 years and recently announced innovations to several of its industrial printer models.
In June, the IBM Printing Systems Division (Boulder, CO) introduced the Infoprint 6500, a new, top of the line matrix industrial printer. The 6500 model prints everything from manifest to multi-part forms to shipping documents to financial records at speeds from 500 lines per minute (lpm) up to 2,400 lpm and ranges in price from $3,000 to $12,000.
The 6500 is the first industrial printer based on the IBM PowerPC chip. "It can handle multiple versions of code. Whether you're hooking it to a Linux server, a mainframe, an SAP application, it's capable of handling all of those data streams," says Doug Oathout, vice president, general office solutions, for the IBM Printing Systems Division. The expanded four-line user interface is easier to deal with than the predecessor 6400 model, he adds.
The recently introduced IBM Infoprint 6700 is a thermal industrial printer that prints barcodes in 4-, 6- or 8-inch widths and is upgradeable for the printing of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The 6700 is designed for fault tolerance. "It not only prints the bar code, but it checks to make sure the bar code is acceptable. If not, it crosses it out and prints another one," says Oathout. The same is true for RFID tags. "It prints and then activates the tag. It checks to make sure the signal on the tag is adequate before letting it go," he says. Of course, there is always a possibility that the RFID tag could be damaged in another part of the environment (such as getting banged into a wall), so the bar code is there for redundancy.
The 6700 also integrates seamlessly with the IBM WebSphere e-business platform. When the data is printed on the bar code or RFID tag, it automatically flows back into the WebSphere system for tracking and other purposes. "Whatever you put into the tag is immediately available to WebSphere. [Users] know what the product is, where it is and other information," says Oathout. Companies that use other platforms, such as Microsoft SQL Server, can set up their system to poll the 6700 printer for data.
Many manufacturers deploy industrial printers in force. A leading U.S. packaged food company installed more than 200 Infoprint 4247 industrial dot-matrix printers in its operations to ensure the production and delivery of shipping manifests and other shipping-related documents, according to Oathout.
Manufacturers look to their vendors not just for innovations such as lower failure rates and powerful chipsets, but also for service and support offerings tailored to their own specific needs. The large OEMs have a global support structure, which is increasingly important given the distributed nature of operations today. "We'll go out and support [IBM printers] on an oil rig in Bangladesh if you need it," says Oathout.
Rockwell Automation also offers overnight exchange of a machine needing service. "You can get a new computer overnight," says Whitney. "We give you the same support for your factory floor PCs that you expect for your enterprise PCs."
(Click here for a select list of companies that offer Industrial Printers.)