Our portfolio has been enriched with a new application that we presented at Cibus Tec – Food Pack (in Parma, from 26th to 31st October 2014).

Those who visited us at the trade fair had the opportunity to see how our engineers have created an extremely interesting application to complete the range of reliable monitoring and supervision systems that we develop.

The goal of our systems of monitoring and supervision has always been to bring together under one supervisor all the various types of PLC exploiting their features of native interface with the outside world and to make use of the services provided by major platforms available on the market without having to change all or part of the existing systems.

FOR THIS REASON WE WANTED TO ADD THE POSSIBILITY OF INTERACTING EASILY VIA TABLET AND SMARTPHONE, without the need for connecting desktop PCs or laptops.

We have often had to deal with companies with different types of PLC, each of which had their own monitoring systems and, unless we continued to use different supervision systems for each, with frequent limitations due to software obsolescence, the only viable solution was to replace all the systems with one.

We then worked to develop an extremely adaptable supervisor able to be adjusted to the needs of each case. We thus came across a solution that is:

• Fully developed in Java
• Multiplatform
• With read/write to PLC functionality
• With client-server technology
• Interfaceable with management applications already in use

• Integrable with additional devices (e.g. IP CAM, Network Weather Stations) not linked to the PLC.

A central system running on a server is responsible for dialogue with the PLCs located at the company and at predetermined times reads preset parameters (e.g. temperature, levels, speed) or can set those parameters.

The server then makes the information available to human interfaces that can be customized for each individual user.

THIS MADE A “MOBILE” VERSION POSSIBLE

• The mobile application, developed in parallel to the computer version but taking into account the limitations of a smartphone, is a fully stackable and interchangeable platform.
• We can thus give access to the system in different ways to whoever may need it such as maintenance engineers, production, technology, quality and planning managers and logistics staff.
• Most importantly, ‘practically’ real-time notifications can be sent out, even without the app installed via email or SMS.
• With, of course, various permission levels configurable, not only can all users with a tablet or smartphone receive notifications, but they can also remotely make initial diagnoses and act rapidly on parameters definable as ‘critical’.

• Since the data source of the PC application and the mobile application is the same, activity on one does not necessarily exclude activity on the other, although limits and configurations may also be added.

The mobile application for tablets and smartphones has for the moment been developed for Android 4.0 or higher, the choice being motivated by the availability of a great variety of compatible devices on the market including peripherals such as bar code scanners and IP65 equipment.

Communication between the device and the server can be via the company WiFi network or via VPN when outside the company premises. The app has been developed with battery energy saving and data traffic containment in mind without compromising communication effectiveness.

For more information or a demonstration do not hesitate to contact us at bierre@bierreautomazioni.com.