08.04.2004

  ASKOM on AUTOMATICON 2004 fair

Between March 23rd and 26th, 2004, EXPO XXI Center hosted the most important event in the annual calendar of events related to industrial automation– AUTOMATICON. This year, the undeniably most popular industrial fair in the country gathered more than 230 participants on a significantly bigger area than last year, which proves the successive growth of the importance of the event. As in previous years, this year we were proud to present our product - asix visualization system – at the AUTOMATICON fair.

Two exemplary configurations of control and supervision systems presented on our stand incited a lively interest from the visitors.

The system based on modules WAGO I/O 750 series was connected to a GSM module through a serial communication processor and utilized GRPS protocol to transfer data to the central computer, where the visualization of a communal heating facility was presented. The system displayed the ability to apply asix for remote installation management with the use of mobile telephones. The proposed solution is most often used for groups of buildings distributed over a wide area (e.g. pumping stations, gas reduction stations) and not possessing the traditional communication infrastructure. Another application was the possibility to manage intelligent building installations – even in a private family house – from a customized place.

Furthermore, a new product from Beckhoff, the CX1000 combining the functionality of a traditional controller and a computer with a Windows XP Embedded operating system, was presented. The CX1000 was connected to an LCD operator panel from the same manufacturer. An asix bundle demo program was installed on such a system configuration. It should be also emphasized here that the AUTOMATICON fair saw an unofficial premiere of the asix bundle for the Windows XP Embedded platform.

Among the multiple new features extending the functionality of the asix package, the following were especially interesting for the visitors:

Multilinguality

Multilinguality is the ability to dynamically change the language of the application, which is enhanced with a national text translation array. Pressing one button is enough to change the language of the displayed texts during operation. Our stand presented the visualization of the sulfuric acid production line with the ability to change the operator interface between Polish, English and Ukrainian languages. Such multilinguality significantly facilitates the development, modification and start-up of visualization software in the systems installed abroad.

Alerter

The task of the alerter is to distribute the notifications about the events occurring in the supervised process. Notification can be sent with use of SMS message or e-mail. The alerter module is directly connected with the asix alarm detection system; it can be also managed with the use of scripts. The alerter can also operate as an independent notification system, without the presence of the asix environment. The stand presented an example of the visualization of an industrial installation, where certain defined operator actions resulted in sending an SMS message to the mobile phone of one of the employees operating the stand.

New communication drivers

The list, growing each year, was this time extended with the following drivers:

- for LG controllers

- for Beckhoff controllers

- Agreggator – for the ongoing calculation of aggregates such as average, maximum, etc.

- Baza – import of values from databases through SQL queries

- File2Asix – import of external data with the use of text files

Just as in previous years, AUTOMATICON turned out to be a meeting place both for the representatives of large corporations and small companies shaping the landscape of the Polish automation market. Apart from the products which have been available for years, technological novelties, new devices and IT technologies are premiered here. We also see it as a place for exchanging of experiences and information. We invite you to visit our stall at the AUTOMATICON fair the next year.

 © ASKOM  06.04.2004, RBo

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