Panel PC
Panel PCs can, on the one hand, be variants of industrial PCs for use in standard control cabinets, consoles and control panels and, on the other hand, a form of graphical touchscreen user interfaces. Typical areas of application include industrial and process automation as well as integration into individual industrial machines or devices. Panel PCs consist of a computer system and a display. The computer system can be a box PC or a single-board computer , often English. act as a single-board computer (SBC). The displays are TFT or LC screens with touch screens that are attached directly to the computer system. Together with a housing, these components form a Panel PC unit.
Various Panel PC categories are available for different requirements, which differ in processor performance, interfaces, (one) design and operating system. Most of these have common industrial functionalities such as degree of protection IP65, NEMA 4, high electromagnetic compatibility , CE marking, designed for 24 hours of continuous operation, high ambient temperatures during operation.
Panel PCs can either be used as an operating or control unit, but also for processing and evaluating data. Panel PCs can basically be divided into two different categories.
Industrial panel PCs
Industrial panel PCs or industrial HMIs ("Human Machine Interface") are used to control larger machine systems, process visualization and industrial automation. They are designed to communicate with numerous PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and thus to monitor and control all input and output actions. The transmission usually takes place via industrial Ethernet or industrial serial bus connections. SCADA software is often used for visualization . Due to the high computing effort, powerful processors are used for industrial panel PCs compared to other operating units. The hardware of an industrial PC differs from that of a conventional personal computer . Often a significantly lower performance is sufficient, since the control of industrial machines does not require high-performance processors. In the area of process visualization, however, powerful processors and graphics solutions, especially multi-screen systems, are used. The x86 architecture for processors is often used for industrial panel PCs . Standard operating systems such as Windows 10 as well as specialized operating systems such as Embedded Linux or Windows Embedded can be used for these . In addition, they can meet the real-time requirements that are increasingly in demand in industrial automation.
Application examples for Industrial Panel PCs include waterworks, machine tools, and chemical processing systems. Industrial panel PCs as user interfaces are offered as a complete package together with a PLC and a software solution such as SCADA by manufacturers such as Siemens , AB Allen Bradley or Schneider Electric .
With modular industrial panel PCs, displays of different sizes can be flexibly connected to a computing unit.
Commercial panel PCs
In contrast to industrial panel PCs, commercial panel PCs or commercial HMIs are primarily used in individual, independent devices. Therefore, different requirements arise for this type of touchscreen user interface. An embedded system is often used for the computer unit for the most compact possible construction . These can be implemented using single-board computers in which all the necessary electronic components are located on a circuit card. The CPU unit can be implemented with various architectures. The ARM architecture is suitable for many applications due to its low power consumption and cost-effective implementation. Commercial panel PCs have standard interfaces such as USB , Ethernet , RS-232 , RS-485 or CAN bus . In contrast to industrial panel PCs, specialized operating systems adapted to embedded systems are used. The software has to be newly developed for each system and can therefore be configured for the respective individual needs.
A special requirement for commercial panel PCs is the integration into the device to be controlled. This includes the connection to the electronic components of the application but also the mechanical adaptation in the housing.
Commercial panel PCs are used, for example, in kiosk machines, medical and laboratory equipment, catering equipment and security technology. Manufacturers such as Kontron , DATA Modul , Garz & Fricke or compmall offer standard solutions or individually configured commercial panel PCs.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Modular Panel PC with Coffee Lake CPU. ICP iEi, November 19, 2019, accessed on February 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Panel PC - visualize and operate , on comp-mall.de, accessed on June 10, 2020