Industry 4.0 Compliant HMI from Weintek

SPS 2015 amongst other things was awash with exciting new Industry 4.0 developments. Whatever your take on ‘Industry 4.0’ you’d probably conclude it is not really a new concept but moreover an earlier concept made both economically and technically achievable through a confluence of more recent developments such as ‘The Internet of Things’, M2M, Apps, Mobile Phones, Tablets, etc. 

Let’s explore the adoption of the same concept in the industrial control field. By way of a comparison conventional HMI is only typically used for parameter input, machine control, data logging, alarm notification, and plays only a complementary role to the PLC. In contrast, the Industry 4.0 generation HMI must be able to run third-party applications on the same platform. Therefore, Viewing, exporting, and printing the data / event log of the device in Excel, consulting the user manual in PDF Reader, modifying PLC programs in PLC programming software and contacting personnel in a faraway office through messaging applications such as Skype are just a few of the expectations in this new world. In a close parallel to cell phones evolving into smartphones, the conventional HMI should evolve into smart HMI. That is, the HMI not only functions as a monitoring and control device on the plant floor, but also serves as a communication bridge linking on-site machine and higher level host computer systems (eg: ERP, CMS, SCADA).

In response to this challenge Weintek’s new cMT-iPC15 functions as an HMI, and also runs third party applications. The cMT-iPC15 software is based on a Windows operating system, connects to cMT-SVR using cMT Viewer and serves as an HMI, whilst also running third party applications.  EasyLauncher, a new application management tool allows the user to quickly customize the cMT-iPC15’s desktop to a deliver tablet-like interface on a PC, while managing access control.

Equipped with Intel Atom E3827 1.75GHz dual core processor (also known as Bay Trail), cMT-iPC15 boasts powerful computing capability, In addition, SOC chip rated at under 10W provides excellent energy efficiency. The aluminum enclosure and front panel comply with IP65 standard, and the rear cover has special waterproof and heat sink design and an SSD Flash memory outperforming conventional HDD in terms of speed and stability completes a very capable industrial HMI platform.

cMT3151 HMI

Based on the architecture of cMT-iV5 + cMT-SVR, Weintek has also released another new cMT model, the cMT3151. The new model is not only a standard HMI, but also a server that allows user access with cMT Viewer running on cMT-iPC15, iPad, Android Tablet, or cMT-iV5 for remote control. On occasions some users may find an HMI compatible printer difficult to source; the cMT3151 alleviates this problem by supporting Linux CUPS which supports many major brands of printers on the market (ex: HP). The user simply needs to connect the cMT3151 to the printer.

For more information please email a request to sales@nemavision-ipc.com or call us on:

 The UK +44 (0)7770-802534 The Netherlands +31 (0)653-975362