DAC102021

28 n INSIGHT October 2021 www.drivesncontrols.com Are we entering the age of the IPC? I ndustrial PCs (IPCs) are now used widely on factory floors for a variety of applications. But some users are still slightly wary about using what has traditionally been seen as an office technology in the harsh conditions of a production environment. Rockwell Automation, which has a long history as a supplier of dedicated industrial controls, expanded further into the IPC arena last year when it acquired ASEM, the specialist Italian manufacturer of industrial PCs and HMIs. Grant Coffin, Rockwell Automation’s business manager for Software & Controls, in the UK & Ireland says the acquisition has had “a massive impact”, with the release of the VersaView 6300 range of IPCs, which users can customise. “We supply literally tens of thousands of variants of IPC and monitors,” he adds, “and can produce customised IPCs to suit every requirement”. But why choose IPCs at all? According to Grant, they provide a scalable and flexible way to monitor adjust what is going on in a factory. He sees them becoming an increasingly important part of the manufacturing edge in a wider IT/OT connected enterprise. He believes Industry 4.0 and digitalisation initiatives mean IPCs are coming into their own. The need to link information across all the various corporate levels in manufacturing and production environments requires increasing amounts of computing power which, according to Grant, can only be delivered by IPCs. Modern IPCs, he points out, bring together the worlds of IT and OT to facilitate the vast amount of data that needs to pass from one area to another, to analyse and store data at the edge, and to reduce the burden on increasingly resource-hungry software platforms. Strengths and limitations Among IPCs’ advantages, Grant cites there: n flexibility, other software can be loaded alongside traditional HMI software n customisation; PC’s can be tailored by the user and built to suit their needs n models can operate as an HMI, server, or client n ability to customise communications hardware such as Ethernet and serial ports n close unwanted USB ports, functionality often inaccessible from HMI’s closed OS n update to the latest patches and anti- virus software n commercially similar to an HMI n options for high processing speeds, large RAM, and memory storage for complex applications, data logging, or where data storage is required. IPCs do have potential limitations when compared to dedicated industrial controllers and HMIs. For example: n the life of an IPC OS may be shorter than that of an HMI (Rockwell uses Win10 IOT LTSC2019 as it is expected to have an extended lifecycle) Industrial PCs (IPCs) are an increasingly common sight on factory floors. Drives & Controls asked Grant Coffin, Rockwell Automation’s Business Manager for Software & Controls, in the UK & Ireland, to explain the role that IPCs can play in the modern factory. Rockwell’s VersaView 6300M industrial monitors incorporate four-point multitouch screens that can be operated wearing gloves. The screens are pre-calibrated, avoiding the need for recalibration.