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2010
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Array Enclosure
Industrial Computers: Do not Lag Behind
Many of the environments that an industrial computer has to work in are certainly not suitable for a conventional desktop PC. Many areas in production and manufacturing contain many of the things that will finish off a sensitive piece of electronics like a PC instantly; dust, grime, grease, water, fluids, extreme temperatures not to mention the odd knock from a pallet truck or forklift.
However while industrial machines are designed and built to cope with almost anything they are extremely expensive and suffer from a lack of advanced performance and technology that a conventional PC offers.
Many industrial computers are made solid state (no moving parts) meaning components have to be small and compact. Moreover, industrial computers are usually sealed machines, their design optimised for protection which means components need to be reliable as a breakdown will result in a service engineer being called and the inevitable delays in production this can cause.
Because of these design prerequisites industrial computers run older hardware components many several years out of date. While many of the processes that an industrial computer will control may not require high processing power or the manipulation of graphics many of these machines can be adequate.
However, an industrial computer is designed to last for several years meaning after four of five years of use the hardware could be over a decade out of date.
Whilst industrial PCs are very stable, running ten-year-old technology does mean many manufacturing processes are not being controlled as efficiently as they should be and the time eventually comes when a upgrade can be put off no longer and the industrial machines are replaced costing a fortune in replacement units and production downtime.
This has always been a catch-22 for industry trying to weigh up the cost of upgrading compared with the possible improvements to production an upgrade will bring about.
A solution to the problem is now apparent thanks to several manufacturers of industrial computer enclosures. They have been designed and manufactured to house a conventional off-the-shelf desktop PC yet still provide the robustness of a bespoke industrial computer.
These enclosures are made from all types of material including food-grade stainless steel and can be used in all hazardous and hostile environments that a conventional industrial computer can go from dust and explosive atmospheres to wet rooms, furnaces and freezers.
As well as being far less expensive than buying a bespoke industrial computer these enclosures have allowed manufacturing and production lines to use a conventional low cost PC in environments that they could normally not function in allowing the use of current technologies to ensure processes and production are running as efficiently as possible.
About the Author
Copyright 2008 © Richard N Williams
Richard N Williams is a technical author and a specialist in the industrial computer industry helping to develop industrial computer enclosures and protection for all environments. Please visit us for more information
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Laptop backup solution?
I'm looking for good backup solutions for my laptop...
Here are the criteria I NEED:
1. portable
2. fast
3. reliable
4. cheap
5. 300GB-1TB capacity (My ghost images are 30-40GB compressed) so I can store many weekly backups before I need to delete anything.
Network access (so I can run the ghost backup wirelessly) would be nice but that's just an extra.
I'm considering these possibilities but I'm not sure what's best:
1. portable USB/FireWire hard-drive (I currently use this and make periodic DVD copies for redundancy)
2. used computer running FreeNAS with a RAID array (not exactley portable)
3. some form of expandable/upgradable enclosure
I have some concerns with RAID though - what if the hardware fails, would I be able to read the drives with another device or adapter?
Is there a cheap USB/Firewire enclosure that's expandable - where I can put a drive in now and another later when I can afford it?
Is there another better option I can use?
You could use an external hard disk.
I wouldnt suggest DVDs as these could have the maximum of 8 GB (double sided or what) and after a few years there will be some data loss on them.
You could use flash drives, as i know you can find a maximum of 8 gb, its more reliable in my opinion.
But if you need like 300 GB then, an external hard disk would be great.
Look on:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=8&name=Hard-Drives
You can find up in the left some options, (like external hard drives and others). I am sure you will find them, like if not then email me.
Or search at
www.ebay.com
www.amazon.com
1TB 7200RPM Hot-swap Sata HD Solution for HP Proliant Series
