With the emergence of new technologies and applications such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence devices, and autonomous driving, industrial control computers (ICCs) are constantly being upgraded, and their features are becoming increasingly diverse, providing suitable ICCs to meet various needs. So, what exactly is an industrial control computer (ICC)? What are its characteristics compared to traditional computers?
What is an industrial control computer?
Industrial control computers, short for "industrial control computers," are microcomputers composed of large-scale integrated circuits. They are computers specifically designed for industrial environments and possess the attributes and characteristics of a computer, such as a motherboard, CPU, hard disk, memory, external interfaces, operating system, computing power, and human-machine interface. They are widely used in many fields, including field control, road and bridge toll collection, medical care, environmental protection, intelligent transportation, communications, monitoring, CNC machine tools, finance, and aerospace, satisfying various automation and intelligent needs across industries.
What are the characteristics of industrial control computers compared to traditional computers?
Compared to traditional PCs, industrial PCs are used more often in harsh environments. Therefore, industrial PCs have stricter requirements in terms of ease of maintenance, heat dissipation, dust prevention, product cycle, and size. This has created the unique characteristics of industrial PCs.
1. High reliability
Industrial control computers (ICCs) are commonly used to control continuous production processes. During operation, shutdowns for maintenance are not permitted; any malfunction could lead to quality issues or even production accidents. Therefore, most ICCs employ high-quality hardware such as chips, CPUs, multi-core processors, and graphics cards to improve reliability and stability, and reduce failure rates and maintenance time.
2. Good real-time performance
Industrial control computers (ICCs) must respond in real-time to changes in various parameters of the controlled object in order to perform real-time control and monitoring of the production process. When deviations or faults occur in process parameters, they must be able to respond in real-time and issue alarms and handle the situation. Therefore, ICCs are equipped with real-time multi-tasking operating systems and interrupt systems to ensure the smooth operation of the work.
3. Strong environmental adaptability
Because of the harsh industrial environment, industrial control computers generally have ultra-high-quality hardware components and external packaging materials, which have strong environmental adaptability and can withstand harsh environments such as high temperature, extreme cold and humidity. They also have the characteristics of dustproof, corrosion-proof, vibration-proof and impact-resistant.
4. Abundant input/output templates
Industrial control computers also have a wealth of multi-functional input/output modules, including analog, digital, and pulse inputs, ensuring that they can be matched with process instruments and interact with various signals, making control and detection processes more intelligent and improving production and work efficiency.
5. Redundancy
In applications where high reliability is required, industrial control computers are required to have dual-machine operation and redundancy systems, including dual control stations, dual operator stations, dual network communication, dual power supply systems, and dual power sources, in order to ensure that the system can work continuously for a long time.
This concludes our sharing about what an industrial control computer is and what its characteristics are. Do you understand now?
