Some applications require custom industrial PC (IPC) solutions to meet specific demands, such as particular industry requirements, harsh conditions, performance needs, or scalability. Many times, the best approach can be to start with a highly configurable platform that is inherently designed to be ideal for this kind of custom solution. The IPC must be rugged, scalable, high-performance and versatile enough to be able to meet custom requirements. For example, a leading global provider of power conversion solutions needed industrial PCs to meet specific demands for customers in the marine industry, and they found that the configurable Emerson PACSystemsTM RXi-XP industrial PC was the ideal solution.
The power conversion provider designs and delivers advanced electrical machines, power drives and control systems for specialized sectors such as the metals, oil and gas, marine and renewable energy industries. The company uses industrial PCs as control units on multiple shipboard applications, including variable frequency drives, automation systems and dynamic positioning systems. The company sources these IPCs from various suppliers, adds their proprietary software, then certifies and sells completed control systems to their marine customers. These IPCs are critical components, acting as the brains of the drives and propulsion and control systems.
When one of the power conversion company’s suppliers discontinued the IPCs used to control many of their systems, they needed an IPC solution that was marine-certified, powerful, modular, scalable, rugged, and could perform in an extended temperature range for demanding marine applications, but most manufacturers could not deliver on these requirements. Emerson’s configurable IPC platform enabled them to develop a solution to meet these needs as well as offer additional capabilities, including custom remote monitoring and diagnostics.
The team created an IPC model to meet the required specifications. It was certified by DNV GL, the world’s largest ship and offshore classification society, to comply with marine-grade standards for temperature, humidity, vibration and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC).
This marine-compliant IPC is based on the Emerson PACSystems RXi-XP industrial PC, which delivers compact, rugged, high-performance computing capabilities and features numerous expansion and storage slots. Its dual core processor is ideal for applications that need to handle multiple operating environments in real-time.
The marine-compliant IPC was designed in what can be described as “a mezzanine arrangement.” The motherboard is at the bottom, the COM Express board with the CPU is in the middle, and on top is a “mezzanine” of expansion cards for different fieldbus applications.
The power conversion provider has realized many benefits from this marine IPC. Its COM Express architecture extends the useful life of the IPC and future-proofs systems by allowing for fast and easy updates without retooling. As technology evolves, only the COM Express module changes. The rest of the IPC, wiring and footprint remain the same, lowering re-certification costs and reducing total cost of ownership.
Rugged DesignThe fan-less design and extended temperature range of the marine IPC make it the ideal solution for the power conversion provider’s marine applications.
Given that marine environments can experience very high temperatures, especially in cabinets and other areas without air conditioning, the customer is always pushing the boundaries of temperature.
High PerformanceThe dual-core processor in the marine IPC provides performance that wasn’t possible with the single-core IPCs that the company used previously.
Dual core gives future opportunities to combine different functions in one controller, Windows on one core and VxWorks real-time control functions on the other.
Additional ApplicationsThe company plans to use the IPC as a replacement for outdated desktop PCs that are running graphics packages on ships. It will save space and allow them to run hypervisor virtualization, and the marine IPC’s rugged housing is better suited to marine environments. It also uses the marine-compliant IPCs to run the remote monitoring and diagnostics solution it has installed at its customer sites. The IPC collects data from automation and drive control systems and relays it back to a service portal for problem diagnosis.
Customer SatisfactionThe customized IPC is modular and can be expanded. The performance of the CPU can be increased as required and the number of expansion slots can be scaled up. And it has the same base, so the power conversion solutions provider can use their software across the whole range of their systems.
This marine-compliant highly configurable IPC enabled custom development for an innovative solution that met the provider’s demanding requirements, and their end users appreciate the quality and reliability it offers.
Do you have a challenging application where you could use an inherently rugged, scalable, high-performance and versatile IPC to develop a custom solution that meets your needs?