Advanced remote assistance

Delivered by Caccia Engineering, Ubiquitous is the name of a remote assistance package that has been developed starting from the consideration that remote connection is a necessary condition, yet not sufficient, to ensure that all the machine's components are working properly and to timely intervene in case of need. That is why the company has developed its own monitoring software for rotary ovens (Easydrive V12.0) and for turbomixers (SmartVision V3.12.10 R60D). Their main distinguishing features of this software are the full graphic representation of the plant and all I/O signals, as well as the lists of coded alarms, offering a textual and photographic description of the problems which, in this way, can be understood immediately even by unskilled personnel. In addition, data recording files for the different events allow exact tracking of any event, whether it triggered an alarm or belongs to a normal processing stage. The main hardware devices are interconnected with Devicenet backbones, making them available and programmable remotely as if the operator was in front of the machine component.
The evolution of industrial PCs made it possible to reach maximum performance and reliability. Currently, the company uses fanless and diskless Asem PCs with up to 15" wide touch-screen LCDs running the Windows XP Pro Embedded operating system with file deletion protection. Communication ports have evolved in time, too, from analogue to digital DSL connections for the Ethernet or WiFi, with typical speeds of 5 Mb/s. According to the company, remote assistance is above all required during the first months after the installation of the plants, in order to continue the training programme begun during the start-up stage. Subsequently, on the other hand, extraordinary control or management software customisation operations may be also requested. As an additional service, the converter can choose to receive the alarm log via email which the machine can send automatically at adjustable intervals of time.