Applications

Scope and aims of ipcas industrial solutions

The example to follow serves to show that there is simply no end to the list of potential applications of ipcas industrial solutions. And there are no limits to applying ones ingenuity to discover new applications or invent additional combinations of ipcas products with other devices to induce network ability and raise industrial processes control to a higher level. In a nutshell, all this adds up to a major trend in industrial processes development towards ...

… and ipcas industrial solutions are geared to play a pivotal role in
promoting this trend.

This contribution is the first in a series to highlight the great opportunities involved in implementing ipcas industrial solutions products in special applications, possibly in combination with other appliances, to advance the above aim.

Interesting new application

These considerations have been prompted by a sharp increase in sales of the ipcas Data/Event Logger with Digital I/O. Apparently printing companies are reaching out to upgrade their machine equipment, and the respective machine suppliers want to enhance their products with added functionality. Asking for the background story I heard through the grapevine that some companies devised the means of combining the ipcas data logger with a light barrier device to computer-count paper sheets in printing applications.

Implementation

How is it done? – A customary light barrier device is simply attached to the paper conveyer on the output side. The data logger is then connected to the device and to the industrial network or PC. The data logger converts analog light signals into digital data for further computer processing. An idea of what the monitoring mask might look like can be gleaned from a Windows.Form application among many possible others (see Application range of included software).

Benefits

Online/network paper sheet counters are obviously used to improve material
planning and logistics of a company. This added functionality

• optimizes material utilization in general
• supports company conservation plans to identify sources of paper waste and reduce rejects (saves material costs)
• helps companies to plan material supplies and processes correctly to prevent machine idling and time waste (increases productivity)
• serves to streamline production lines by enabling continuous monitoring
• can be used to identify, alert, warn against, and thus to prevent malfunctions, bottelenecks, etc. or at least to remedy in time to avoid further damage or waste
• supports environmental protection aims by promoting waste prevention
• raises TQM standards (increased reliability, productivity, environmental protection)

Of course, these benefits can be fully utilized in combination with the corresponding ipcas material planning software FAMOUS.

Application potential

What has been said for the printing industries can be applied to all kinds of mass production wherever high piece numbers are involved. With other kinds of sensor devices the ipcas Data/Event logger also can be used to log other important PDA (production data acquisition) parameters such as temperature, humidity, pressure, tension, etc. Besides, with new combinations perhaps using other ipcas products, this applicability can be extended to MDA (machine data acquisition) or even to the purpose of correlating process data with machine data (e.g. for testing new products in research and development) … and more …

Used as an event logger it can also be widely applied on site, for example, for TDC (time data capture) in connection with turnpikes, turnstiles, etc. or CAQ (computer-aided quality) applications.

In the entries to come I would like to give you a better idea of the scope of applications and potential functionality of the data logger as well as other ipcas products partly used in combination with specific third-party appliances.

For further information, please go to ipcas Data/Event Logger specifications.