The thin client market has really taken off. Almost everywhere you look you can now find some company selling a thin client. The growth in this market has happened for a very good reason - thin client computing makes sense for almost every application. When companies see the costs of keeping an entire compliment of Personal Computers running, they recognize that a full PC is not needed for most of their staff. Tasks like data entry, report generation, word processing and accounting can be done just as well from a Thin Client. The operator never knows the difference, and the system is much, much easier to maintain. The IT department is finally able to keep all of the systems current with the latest software, without having to spend nights and weekends going from system to system.
As good as the thin client is for the office, it just couldn't find a better application than the plant floor. Here is an area where there are PCs that do primarily one thing - monitor and control a manufacturing process. The operator is not switching applications, not compiling any source code, not reading files from floppy disks. The PC has actually become just a really powerful Operator Interface Panel, with its sole purpose being to facilitate the process. The only reason that PCs are used instead of OI Panels is that it is impossible to find a panel that will run the current crop of control and monitoring software.
A Thin Client allows most of the applications that you currently run in your plant to run exactly as they do under Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, but without the bother of a PC. As the Windows 2000 February release date draws nearer, its built-in support for Thin Clients is causing more and more applications to be certified for Thin Client operation every day. Putting a PC on a factory floor has never been a really good idea - operators don't need to start other applications, they never need access to any of the disk drives, and the IT department doesn't want to keep going out into the factory to update software or remove viruses. And who wants to install (or upgrade) 40 copies of Wonderware, especially when each line may have to go down during the update? For the factory floor, the acronym PC doesn't stand for Personal Computer - it stands for Problem Center.
The manufacturing floor is different from any other workplace. Here the equipment often is required to be running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many plants have a large amount of particulate matter floating around. Powdered sugar, sawdust, carpet or paper fiber will eventually clog the inside of electronics that rely on forced-air cooling. Temperatures range from hot, hot to cold, cold. Vibration often takes its toll on hard drives within a month or so. Mounting locations are difficult to find, and once mounted the equipment must be able to withstand rough treatment.
ACP's industrial thin clients were designed by people who really know the factory floor. The all-metal case surrounds the electronics that are rated up to an ambient temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. There is no fan to suck in dust and debris, and no disk drives to fail or boards to pop out of their slots due to vibration. The metal mounting bracket allows you to screw it directly inside a panel, under a desk, or to a wall. It runs on five volts DC - if you don't have a convenient supply, use either our integrated power supply or our wall transformer.
Most office installations don't use the serial port - there just aren't that many serial devices around the workplace. But in the factory, much of the data received from industrial equipment comes through a serial cable. Our Thin Client has two serial ports, so you can use one to communicate with your equipment and one for a serial interface to a touch screen. Our unit comes with support for all of the standard touch screens - it even has a feature that allows you to calibrate them remotely, which you will really appreciate if you have ever tried to start a calibrate program locally when the cursor is always four inches away from your fingertip.
In addition to serial data, many factories use special Fieldbus I/O. ACP's industrial thin client is the only thin client on the market that supports Profibus and DeviceNet I/O. Simply run a Profibus cable to our thin client, plug it in, and start reading and writing data. Within the next several months, we will be releasing support for other Fieldbus I/O, including DeviceNet.
Probably the greatest advantage offered by ACP's Thin Client technology is found in our Management Software, ThinManager. This product allows the system administrator to select the software modules required for each client, adding such things as Profibus and audio capability only when needed. He can also modify the screen resolution on a client-by-client basis, adding the correct touch screen driver. Terminals can be grouped by functional areas, and any terminal added to a group will inherit all of the default settings for that particular group.
Any client turned off on the floor can be configured to immediately reconnect exactly where it left off without user intervention. Once the client finishes booting (around 30 seconds) the operator will be returned exactly where he was before the power was lost. If a Thin Client is damaged, a new one can be brought in and configured with a button-click to replace the previous client. This requires no interaction at the server - it is all done from the floor. In fact, adding a new client is even easier. Once the system administrator has set up a default configuration, any new client that is plugged in and turned on will power up with that configuration. Imagine installing a new control and monitoring platform on a line by simply turning it on.
Look into what an Industrial Thin Client from ACP can do for your manufacturing facility. We know that once you do, you will realize that Thin Client technology will save you thousands of dollars each year in support and maintenance. And you will realize that, for your factory floor, you should only buy Thin Clients from Automation Control Products - The Industrial Thin Client Company.
For more information on ACP Industrial Thin Client computers, please visit our web site at http://www.thinmanager.com
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