Creating A High-Brightness HMI
Read How the Golden Gate Bridge’s Road Zipper Uses a Maple HMI to Save Lives
After over 70 years without an appropriate boundary, a movable barrier system called the Road Zipper, was adopted in 2015 as the solution to a safer Golden Gate Bridge. The use of a movable concrete barrier and barrier-moving machine allows for traffic lane adjustments by creating or eliminating lanes at certain times of the day based on traffic conditions. This ability to open, close, and change lanes can be used for protecting work zones, eliminating crossover-road fatalities, and creating contraflow lanes.
Company Name: Industrial Process Solutions Inc. (IPSI)
Industry: Steel Production & Processing
Location: Alabama
Industrial Process Solutions Inc. (IPSI) specializes in production line optimization, with a large clientele in the steel industry and manufacturing sectors.
Project Scope
IPSI’s customer in the rolled steel production business needed a way to collect data from their production line, monitor for any errors or alarm conditions, and store production data for reporting and continuous improvement. The system maintains high horsepower coordination drives, ensuring the processing lines are efficient and updated but they lacked the ability to collect and store that information effectively.
The current legacy drives and PLC have already been programmed and have been working well for several years. They did not want to replace or reprogram the existing PLC and controls. Additionally, the manufacturing facility has bright overhead lighting, as well as natural skylights creating washout or glare issues with some other displays.
The Solution
IPSI chose Maple Systems because of the ease of connecting the HDMI-enabled headless HMI to their legacy control equipment using our free configuration software. The software’s available communication drivers made connections easy to set up, and the built-in data logging and alarm monitoring were easy to configure. IPSI did not need to do any reprogramming of the customer’s existing working drives or PLC controls. Programming and testing could be done offline, allowing them to get the project up and running quickly for their customer, with little downtime for the actual deployment of the Maple Systems components into the system.
The large, clear, bright 21.5” monitor is VESA mounted above the equipment where it can be seen from a distance around the machine. And the bright 1000nit display overcomes difficulties from the factory lighting glare and surrounding equipment, enabling workers to clearly see machine status’ and quickly resolve any alarm conditions that occur.
By adding the HDMI-enabled headless HMI to the application, ISPI was able to interface to the existing drives and PLC to collect production data using the HMI software communication drivers. The headless HMI also monitors for alarm conditions, creates a log file for reporting, and save the data to an attached USB stick This USB stick can be removed and backed up remotely as needed for compliance.
The headless HMI will also email or text-message operators and supervisors when an alarm condition occurs that needs immediate attention. The operator can easily remote into the headless HMI via their phone or a tablet for further investigation. This remote access enables a pass-through to the connected drive(s) and PLC if further troubleshooting is required.
Our Value Promise
Long renowned in the Industrial Automation industry for the quality of technical support we have provided for decades, Maple Systems has a reputation for connecting customers with someone who knows our products inside and out. Whether it is one of our trusted System Integrator partners, Distributors, or our own engineering team, we are happy to connect you with a knowledgeable engineer dedicated to understanding your application.
Application Engineering
In an industry where every advantage counts, collaborating with a trusted partner will get your project where you want it to be, fast.
Supported Products
High Brightness Industrial Monitors
Maple Systems industrial high bright touchscreen LCD displays deliver enhanced display performance from professional-grade panels, 1,000 nits brightness and very high contrast ratios for demanding applications and environments heavy with ambient light.
HDMI- Enabled Headless HMI
This HDMI®-enabled unit works with screens of any size, making screen size no longer a limitation in your application. Monitor PLC operations, gather data, and remotely access your control system on one of our industrial monitors, or your own tablet/laptop/PC.