Scalable visualisation solution puts the power into design flexibility
One of the most vital elements of any product design, development and commissioning process is time. As markets place greater demands on manufacturers, they, in turn, place even tighter deadlines on system integrators and machine builders. The big question is how timescales can be reduced at all stages of the process without affecting the quality of the end product or the service the customer receives.
As well as connectability and modularity, scalability is one of the most important facets for any design engineer to embrace. Scalable solutions can allow engineers to adopt a common reference for all sizes of machines and applications, removing many of the hurdles introduced by bespoke installations. Indeed, another area where complications can arise is through the use of multiple hardware vendors – especially when using those that only offer equipment or expertise in one area, leading to mix and match installations. One of the most immediately obvious areas where this is blatantly apparent is in the field of visual machine interfaces, where operators, supervisors and managers alike all want visibility of the same process but in different ways, at different levels and often on different platforms.
Leveraging the capabilities of its Integrated Architecture, Rockwell Automation is able to offer a scalable visualisation solution that is based on the same universal technology irrespective of the size the final application. The beauty of this approach is that engineers only need to learn and understand one platform and can then be confident that this will be applicable to a huge variety of machines or installations – large or small.
Rockwell Automation’s View technology offers many essential benefits towards addressing time and technology constraints |
To a machine builder or system integrator the benefits are obvious. Not only will much of the variety be removed from multiple machine builds involving either one limited supplier or multiple suppliers, but the engineers will also become far more confident as they will be working within a single application environment. Not only can this help remove the possibilities for errors but it also offers the potential to significantly speed up the all important design, manufacture and commissioning times. What is more, the same system can be applied to maintenance routines and practices, making these more streamlined and efficient over the life of the machine.
“View offers users the best of both worlds, the tailored capabilities of a bespoke system but the flexibility of a multiple-platform environment.” |
At the design stage, the main benefit is familiarity. Any View application applied on one machine can be applied in a similar fashion on another, without any impacts or penalties relating to size or type of operation. The engineer simply uses the best display hardware, media and communication protocol for that application and reuses previously developed graphical displays and terminal configurations.
At the commissioning stage, these benefits also become apparent as the machine is prepared for service. Troubleshooting can be enhanced and speeded up using the device specific, pre-engineered faceplates. System-wide tag use allows in-field programming to be a far simpler affair. The end user will also reap the rewards again thanks to a single programming environment and the support of Rockwell Automation’s worldwide support network.
Leveraging the capabilities of our Integrated Architecture, we are able to offer a scalable visualisation solution that is based on the same universal technology |
One of the most important benefits also provided is the fact that the Logix control platform and all the associated ancillaries integrate with the View solution offering a common design environment, system-wide tag use, a number of pre-engineered faceplates for many disciplines.
And connectivity does not just stop at Rockwell Automation’s door. We offer offer built in connectivity (at no additional cost) to a wide range of third-party controllers. Although Logix is the preferred integration route, Rockwell Automation realises that we must cater for the needs of the customers and offer connectivity to other systems, be they legacy systems or part of a new installation.
View-enabled products include FactoryTalk View Machine Edition & PanelView Plus Operator Interface. This offers a machine-level component of FactoryTalk View for monitoring and controlling a single machine or small process. By using common development software – FactoryTalk View Studio Edition – has high scalability and functionality for machine-level HMI devices such as PanelView Plus operator terminals and VersaView industrial computers.
Going up a level for supervisory applications, Rockwell Automation also offers FactoryTalk View Site Edition – a distributed or standalone scalable supervisory solution. Offering preferred integration with the Logix Control platform, it supplies server and HMI redundancy, and multi-server/multi-client operation for continuous monitoring and data tracking, operator authentication and electronic signature. Once again it uses View Studio, so commonality and familiarity can be used to the engineer’s advantage.
More than 200,000 platforms are using View technology worldwide across many industries, which has demonstrated its capabilities many times over.
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