HMI, Production Monitoring & SCADA
Data Collection
When a production control
system is PLC based, then in addition to the flexibility of programmable
control logic, it provides the advantage of being able to gather counts
and event information that may be valuable for immediate use in shop-floor
environment or for information systems elsewhere in the factory. For
example, production outputs, number, duration and reason for stoppages,
rejection analysis are all easily monitored and held for collection.
PC Software Development for
Shop-Floor
With appropriate PLC software and communications techniques this data can
be passed to a PC based software application for local display, database
storage or further processing elsewhere. A major part of our business is
to develop data collection and production monitoring software applications
for the manufacturing industry. We now have many years' experience in
implementing clear and simple graphical interfaces for use on the
shop-floor, some with touch-screen monitors.
Parameterisation
The data flow doesn't have
to be one way. PLC software should be designed to be configurable through
parameters so that certain logic may be optionally selected, timer and
counter values adjusted. In this way the machine can be made flexible to
production requirements without the need to alter program code directly.
Through data communications, Windows based software applications may
provide a clear and convenient way to set configuration parameters.
Brand and Recipe Management
Beyond simple parameterisation, PC technology can be used to store and
download collections of data specific to a particular brand or recipe into
PLCs, enabling manufacturing processes to be flexible and rapidly
adjusted.
Architectural Philosophy
Interfacia has a
design approach for its shop-floor systems architectures that allows the
system to grow from the ground upwards but ensuring that the configuration
is flexible and centrally manageable.
Enterprise Development
We develop bespoke software
systems according to Microsoft DNA multi-tier principles and using the
building blocks of COM/DCOM, SQL Server, MMQ, MTS/COM+ and Visual Basic.
For some examples of recent projects, read on...
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