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The Thin Client market has really taken off. Almost everywhere you look you can now find some hardware company selling a Thin Client, and most software companies now offer support for their products running on the Windows 2000 Terminal Server platform. 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 manufacturing 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 the applications that you currently run in your plant to run exactly as they do under Microsoft Windows, but without the bother of a PC installed in the factory. 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 Intellution, especially when each line may have to go down during the update? As we have said before, 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 or be neglected for long periods of time.
That is the reason that ACP has teamed up with so many industrial manufacturers to provide a line of almost 40 different models of true industrial Thin Clients. This equipment is designed by people who really know the factory floor - may of the units have all-metal cases surrounding the electronics and are rated up to an ambient temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Most have no fan that could draw in dust and debris, and none of the units have any disk drives to fail or boards to pop out of their slots due to vibration. Many have mounting brackets that allow you to mount them directly inside a panel, under a desk, or to a wall. Some run on as little as five volts DC, and some even have a Class I Div 2 rating.
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. Unlike office grade Thin Client equipment, ACP Enabled Thin Clients support high speed serial data transfer, for communication to factory devices like PLCs and touch screens. In addition to serial data, many factories use special Fieldbus I/O. ACP Enabled Thin Clients are the only clients on the market that support Fieldbus I/O such as Profibus and DeviceNet.
Probably the greatest advantage offered by any ACP Enabled Thin Client is that brought in by our Management Software, ThinManager. This product allows the system administrator to select the software modules needed 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, recalibrating the touch screen from the ThinManager interface when needed. Clients can be grouped by functional areas, and any client 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) when powered back on. 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 and requires no special knowledge about server IP addresses and such. 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.
One of the most requested features is our now famous Server Failover capability. ACP Enabled Thin Clients running anywhere on the floor can detect problems with the Terminal Server and then search a list of backup servers to find one that is available and on line. And the system can be set up so that the operator probably won't even notice that his interface is now running on a different Server.
Look into what an Industrial Thin Client from ACP's hardware partners 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 that use technology 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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