Advantech Company Brochure

I n d u s t r i a l a u t o m at i o n p l at f o r m s

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Advantech, a leader in industrial-grade computing platforms, was founded in 1983. 30 years of experience allows us to offer the best-in-class quality products, thus empowering our customers, such as system integrators, to optimize their product offering and to realize their business growth targets.

Our company delivers gateways, I/O devices, networks, servers, visualization and data management products, and even complete industrial PCs. Delivering these Automation Solutions means we are at the forefront of industry trends. Cloud Computing, The Internet of Things and Smart Planet constitute the basis for such new solutions.

Advantech delivers its components at all stages of the Automation Pyramid. Its expertise and drive for innovation supports a wide range of customers.

Advantech is particularly successful in segments such as transport automation, power and energy supply, and machine and factory automation.

Advantech is an authorized alliance partner of both IntelÂŽ and MicrosoftÂŽ. Our customers find the technologies we use in our products to be widely compatible with other products offered in the global marketplace. Advantech is dedicated to build a global brand; it is a promise to our business partners keep building a trustworthy brand that will help them achieve their goals.

Mission Visionary Computing Empowers eWorld Innovations

Growth Model

Focus & Goal

Segmented Biz Units Powered by a Global Trusted Brand

The Global Leader of ePlatform Services for eWorld Solution Integrators

Advantech‘s Good to Great 3-Circle Principle 2

A Global Leader in IndustrialGrade Computing Platforms

Factory of the Future

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Autonomous Control and Processes – the Factory in Charge

Improving CNC Machine Utilization rate by Real-time Monitoring Solution Illustrating the Perfect Pyramid of Automation

A Robust Panel PC for Intelligent Tightening Machine in an Automobile Assembly Factory

Changing the Industrial Landscape with Advancement of Video Wall Technology Matrox Validated Advantech Controllers Empowering Video Walls

Industrial Communication Enabling Highly Synchronized Operation Ethernet Switches for an Automotive Production Line

Exciting Times Ahead for Power & Energy

Advantech Provides the Ideal System for Water Heating and Monitoring

The Factory of the Future: More Jobs, Different Jobs While the factory of the future may leverage the work load of the workers on the factory floor, the opposite is occuring for a wider range of professionals required for the integration such as the supply chain. This will change the definition of a factory or production plant, as the production process will be extended by integrating suppliers, their providers and even product distribution.

Autonomous control and processes – the factory in change. In a fully automated assembly plant, the work order is generated by the production control computer, and is split into picking lists for an entirely automated warehouse. A manufacturing traveler is produced to accompany the bill of materials and the work in progress, and a set of specific manufacturing instructions are sent digitally to each production cell so that the machines can perform the required functions on the raw material or the work in progress. There are also instructions for quality inspections, along with either warehousing instructions or shipping information for the final products. At no point in this process is human intervention required unless something goes wrong.

Robots can perform tasks more easily than workers, e.g. due to the repetitive nature of the work, safety issues or the agility required. Robots can also perform repetitive tasks significantly cheaper than a manufacturing cell with human workers, and with higher repeatability and quality. Tasks that are too complicated or may require too much analytical capability from robots or intelligent machines are done by humans.

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Smarter machines will accomplish the above with smarter embedded controllers, all communicating across a common plant Ethernet-based backbone using both wired and wireless communications technologies. The smarter embedded controllers will benefit from the increasingly powerful microprocessors based on Moore’s Law, and these smarter controllers will improve the intelligence of the manufacturing platform.

Software will take a quantum leap in performance and ease of use. Easy operation software will improve human behavior and prevent failures , leading to the benefits of the Automated Factory: 1. More flexibility 2. Higher throughput 3. Improved quality control 4. Increased safety 5. Allows workers to focus on higher value tasks

The factory of the future, indeed the factory of today, must be flexible and the complexity of its processes must, with new software and machine intelligence, simplified for people to comprehend and operate. This future factory will be a concept, not a place, tied together by means of electronic communications between customer, supplier, plant, warehouse, distribution and customer.

Case Story Improving CNC Machine Utilization Rate by Real-Time Monitoring Solution Today, CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines are widely used in the manufacturing industry to produce complex parts with high accuracy. Despite the increasingly use of such automated control equipment, manufacturers continuously face issues to manage when abnormal situation occurs.

To control a large number of CNC machines in the production floor, managers need to recognize these abnormal situation to solve the abnormal condition immediately and to continue the manufacturing process to increase the equipment utilization rate.

In general, most engineers know how to use a PLC to detect the signals of the CNC machines.

However, this may result in problems concerning the high costs for an implementation under real time conditions because PLC is not a real-time device and its complex language requires more effort from engineers to program.

For this reason, one of our customers was looking for a more cost-effective and flexible solution. Since the customer was concerned about the machine availability and the implementation costs, the monitoring solution should be easy to be integrated into an existing network without having to worry

about bandwidth constraints. In addition, there were much electrical and mechanical interference in the factory floor environment that could potentially lead to operation failures. For this reason, the required devices should offer a good protection against interferences to ensure a stable operation of the CNC system under demanding environment.

Advantech’s ADAM-6050 and ADAM-6017 modules have been recommended for a quick uploading data to the main control room. The ADAM-6050 provides 12 digital input and 6 digital output channels, and is responsible for collecting all required digital IO status changes from the CNC machines. The ADAM-6017, which provides 8 analog input and 2 digital output channels, is in charge for detecting the load changes, in order to fully control of the machine’s workload.

To transmit the on-site IO signals to the Distributed Network Control (DNC) server, both ADAM devices are equipped with an Ethernet interface, which allows an easy integration into the existing Ethernet network architecture via an Ethernet switch.

ADAM-6000 series do not only provide the data acquisition function to satisfy the needs of the machine monitoring process, but also deliver an industrial grade specification for a secure operation in a severe industrial environment. The low-power consumption, compact design and the simple GCL programming support allows for an easy and flexible implementation and a convenient maintenance of the ADAM 6000 ethernet based IO devices..

Moreover, the ADAM 6000 series is an excellent enhancement to improve the production efficiency and keep the production costs under control.

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TPC-1840WP

Architecture of Control Systems: the Automation System Pyramid The essential idea behind the automation system pyramid is that the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition technology (SCADA) plays an essential role by acquiring and managing information coming from the field. This result in better control and reduces maintenance cost by storing and managing all data in a single control room.

SCADA links the top and bottom layers of the automation system pyramid. The Manufacturing Execution System (MES) layer, situated above SCADA, represents the interface between the lower SCADA and HMI layers and the top Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) layer of the pyramid.

Because the MES is an interface between the pyramid rows, reliability is essential.

and effective way. The diversity of plant topology requires flexible HMI systems and strong, yet flexible equipment that can operate in harsh environments (as regards to temperature and electric environment).

The architecture described above needs a reliable communication layer that must be transparent (no interference with devices communications) and reliable (communication infrastructure is the backbone to which all the devices are connected; a communication issue can interfere with the entire pyramid functionality). Advantech can deliver complete solutions, ranging from operator interfaces to high computational power IPC, as well as reliable and transparent communication solutions for the SCADA and MES layers of the pyramid.

To ensure accuracy, Advantech uses Embedded Server technology with strict revision control, which guarantees a stable platform for a long period of time. Some key features of server technology are Xeon CPU, ECC Memory, RAID and Redundant Power Supply support. Furthermore, Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is used to monitor the system real-time, receive alerts and manage the system from a remote location.

In the bottom layers of the pyramid, HMI must be present to allow the exchange of information between machines and operators. By creating a unique Graphical User Interface (GUI) for all the operators in the production line, SCADA systems allow users to perform operations in an efficient

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Case Story Global Car Manufacturer Empowers Factory Workers Car manufacturing plants are large buildings and typically use one line to produce a single model of a car. This is not only labor intensive, but also expensive and limiting. One of our clients wanted to modernize their car manufacturing plant by increasing flexibility on the production lines. By providing the latest touch panel computers, which can be modified to meet their requirements, Advantech can help car manufacturers to reduce the amount of space needed for production lines and expand their manufacturing capabilities. Employee work satisfaction can be increased by allowing them to make proper decisions based on reliable data .

With five production lines at their manufacturing plant, a global car manufacturer wanted to be able to speed up productivity, increasing quality and reducing error rates. To reduce the error rate of the production line they wanted to be able to give their workers the flexibility to choose from a range of components should one not be available.

To do this they required workers to have access to multi-touch touch-panel computers which would be installed with dedicated HMI software and improve the tracking of each part of the assembly line. If there was a failure during any part of the process the client required that assembly workers could fix it quickly through the use of the panel so that the line wouldn’t be held up.

With brand-new ID design, the TPC-1840WP and TPC-2140 provides a high resolution 18.5” and 21” displayed and PCT multi-touch in 16:9 wide format. By embedding an AMD T56E 1.65GHz processor with independent GPU, the TPC-1840WP and TPC-2140WP can support advanced graphical performance in more complex applications. Builtin function and home key button for greater user usability and operating safety. The TPC-1840WP also supports a mini-PCIe slot for communication

function expansion. The opening side cover is designed for easy maintenance of Cfast/ HDD/MiniPCIe components.

The client required two models of touch screen computers. With an outstanding price performance ratio, the If Award winning TPC-1840WP and TPC2140WP have great appearance and an intuitive user interface. With their two pale blue soft-keys that, when lightly touched, give users quick and easy access to the information they need, the TPC1840WP and 2140WP allow the pleasant viewing of information. To further aid this, both models feature widescreens with a ratio of 16:9, providing 40% more screen area than 4:3 displays. Furthermore, with the addition of multi-touch capabilities they provide even greater control and viewing of the information shown in Advantech’s SUSIAccess and WebAccess management software.

All of this is made possible with the inclusion of an AMD dual-core processor with independent graphical processing unit which provides support for Windows 8 and DirectX11 so it can handle more complicated and detailed graphics.

In addition to this, Advantech adapted the rear panel of the TPC’s to include VESA arm mounting to allow operatives to position the devices in the location best suited to them.

Our client tested several other manufacturers during the consultation process and they decided that Advantech offered the best overall solution; 1. with the most up-to-date panel PCs 2. the ability of these systems to be installed anywhere in the world with a guarantee of the same quality of service they are receiving in their Italian plant.

3. Advantech’s post-sales technical support provides the customer ease-of-mind. Any difficulties will be handled quickly and efficiently to ensure that there is no loss of services.

4. Finally the all-in-one solution included not only the hardware, but also the installation and configuration of the clients bespoke software.

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server

Layer 2 Managed Switch (EKI)

Power over Ethernet (PoE) Front End Server (HPC)

Touch Panel Computer (SPC)

Touch Panel Computer (FPM)

Intelligent Micro Computer (AIMC)

Factory floor 8

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room control room Layer 3 Managed Switch (EKI)

Back End Server (HPC)

Video Wall Controller (AVS)

Touch Panel Computer (TPC)

Advantech: Total Hardware Solution Provider for Factory Automation The left hand side of the diagram shows the Intelligent Micro Computer (AIMC) installed in each machine. The data from the AIMC is collected by the front-end server (HPC server). The operator on the factory floor manages the machine via the human machine interface (HMI). On the right, the collected data is sent to the back-end server in the

control room via managed Ethernet switches (EKI).

In the control room, the operator uses surveillance cameras to check the factory floor and the operating status of the machines. If an emergency occurs, he raises the alarm and enlarges the image on the video wall, which is controlled by the Video Wall Controller (AVS).

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Change of Industrial Landscape with Advancement of Video Wall Technology Besides being used as a signage display, a video wall can also be a powerful control room tool, aggregating, integrating, analyzing and manipulating massive amounts of information from a whole array of sources. In professional applications that require high situational awareness – such as SCADA, security, oil and energy – a reliable, highperformance video wall controller is the backbone of the central control room. A number of elements are important with respect to control room application: large-screen display systems are required for a perfect view as well as worktop integration and remote PC control systems, and the workplaces need to be designed efficiently and ergonomically so the operators can do their job well.

Why are video walls installed in control rooms?

Simple: they provide a precise overview of all information, which results in short response times and fast trouble shooting. They have advanced control options and the intelligent display solutions are equipped with control features such as alarm management and presets. Task sharing is possible due to multiple display possibilities. And, last but not least, video walls offer many kinds of signals, information and scenarios.

space. Then we have to think about the duration of visualization (24/7 or temporary) and the type of displayed signals and their input and output quality. How many users and operators will use the equipment? Ambient conditions such as lighting, humidity and temperature are also important. As are of course integration requirements with other control systems and future expansion requirements.

When equipped with Matrox Mura MPX cards, the Advantech AVS video wall controller is capable of both handling multiple displays and capturing video or graphics streams from a wide range of sources, such as PC, NVR, DVR, decoder box, blue ray player, set-up box, etc. Once streams are captured, the AVS video wall controller flexibly switches, scales, organizes and displays this content in real time.

Powered by reliable Matrox Mura MPX cards, the Advantech AVS video wall controller offers the ideal solution for system integrators or OEMs who need to build high performance video wall systems.

The specific requirements of large-screen systems vary depending on the field of application with regard to size and the connected signal sources.

Furthermore, different installations have different requirements even in the same field of application, so it is vital to have solutions that are flexible and individually customizable. Needless to say that in order to install large-screen systems in control rooms we need to ensure certain conditions are examied.

First of all there has to be a sufficient amount of

AVS-540

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Matrox Validated Advantech Controllers Empowering Video Walls “The development of video wall technology has changed lifestyles: digital signage, stage broadcasting, surveillance, factory automation, and transportation are all active behind the scenes.

Thanks to further development of computer, network, and display technologies , video wall performance continues to improve while the total cost of ownership is reduced, making video walls the fastest-growing area in the IT and digital electronics industries. Advantech is recognizes this transformation and is collaborating with ecosystem partners to develop premium video wall solutions to fulfill the market demand,” says Franz Wei, Vice President of Advantech Embedded Systems Group.

“Through this cooperation between Advantech and Matrox, video wall system integrators can buy Matrox-validated Pre-configured Video Wall Solutions (AVS), that have been tested on performance and compatibility with Mura™ MPX cards in Matrox’

hardware and software quality assurance labs as well as strained in thermal and longevity tests to meet the exacting requirements of customers in this market,” says Samuel A. Recine, Matrox Graphics Director of Sales – Americas & Asia Pacific.

The advancement of video wall technology is changing the industrial landscape and the way we see and react to the world. In some critical applications, such as SCADA control rooms, system reliability and stability can be a matter of life and death, which requires the reliable and safe operation of powerful Matrox Mura™ MPX cards along with the most reliable Advantech premium video wall solutions. Advantech, with decades of experience in developing computing platforms for applications in various industrial sectors, sees the importance of the video wall mission and is proud to offer its best support.

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Advantech’s IConnectivity Helps Customers to Win Factory of the Future Challenges Manufacturing is facing a world of communication and competition: the huge opportunities from factory of the future are driving a profound rethinking process accross all industries.

Today, managing the complex requirements of machine control, production line monitoring and production areas, means that industrial networking becomes the key in boosting productivity.

To succeed, automation networks need to improve operational and cost efficiency in order to carry a growing workload of multiple services, by achieving integration between industrial Ethernet devices, fieldbus devices, and other subsystems.

To meet this complex and challenging needs, Advantech’s IConnectivity offers a comprehensive portfolio of network-centric automation solutions – Industrial Networking, Industrial Wireless, and Device Connectivity – to help customers to simplify management, reduce costs and achieve greater reliability and efficiency. After all, Advantech’s mission is to “Enable an Intelligent Planet” Advantech Industrial Ethernet Switches, Wireless Access Points, Media Converters, Serial Device Servers and Modbus Gateways securely transmit critical and sensitive information, remotely monitor and control networked devices, and emphasize high communication capabilities for industrial applications.

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EKI-2528

EKI-6311

EKI-7659

Case Story Ethernet Switches for an Automotive Production Line Solutions for Assembly Management Systems for motor engine manufacturers and parts producers require the support of automatic control and information technologies to achieve real-time production monitoring, equipment processing parameter setting, product quality management, data archiving and backup, and remote user management.

A solid and reliable communication network is critical for carrying out all these functions. To ensure reliability, the network must be designed to take the necessary level of redundancy into account, including a self-healing X-Ring of Ethernet managed switches.

This provides a redundant network path in the event of a failure on the network or a similar problem.

A redundant power supply to provide backup in case of a catastrophic power failure is also required.

When it is essential that equipment is continuously monitored and delays in data transmission could cause time delays, faster bandwidth is critical, as is the reliability of the data equipment, since it must continue to operate in areas of extreme temperature.

One of our customers’ solutions for motor? driveline workshops consists of a device level, a control level and an information level, which communicate via a fiber optic network. The backbone of the network is supported by Advantech’s industrial managed Ethernet switches EKI-7659C or EKI-7656C, which support Advantech’s proprietary redundant network protocol: an X-Ring that provides users with an easy

way to establish a redundant Ethernet network with an ultra-high-speed recovery time of less than 10ms.

The EKI-7659C/EKI-7656C also has a wide variety of ports and supports the unusual function of “port trunking”. This means that two or more ports are grouped together and work as a logical path to increase bandwidth between two cascaded switches.

At the lowest level of the topology, a number of Advantech’s EKI-2528 or EKI-2525 switches are deployed to connect with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), which command and control manufacturing equipment. The EKI-2528/EKI-2525 provides redundant power input design and is secured with a double protection mechanism: Power Polarity Reverse Protect and an Overload Current Resettable Fuse. The former tolerates reverse power wiring and the latter protects the system from overload currents. The upper level of the application architecture - the information system for the supervisors - is supported by EKI-6311GN, a wireless AP that provides a reliable wireless environment for industrial building systems to allow remote real-time monitoring over the production lines.

Our customer substituted their original switches with the Advantech Ethernet switch and wireless AP products and found the switches to be compatible with different brands of PLCs, allowing the whole system to keep operating correctly. By using Advantech products they achieve optimum network performance and security, and they saved money without sacrificing system performance.

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Exciting Times Ahead for Power and Energy Power and Energy applications are becoming more and more critical as demand for electricity continues to increase worldwide. Additionally, new challenges are arising due to the limitations of our traditional power resources as we try to minimize the impact of our power usage on the environment.

Renewable energies, such as wind and solar power, play more significant roles in modern electricity grids. Furthermore, the modernization of legacy Transmission and Distribution (T&D) systems and providing reliable T&D information for electric power management are becoming key goals for today’s power and energy applications.

To optimize the effectiveness of integration from various Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and ensure the interoperability and interconnectivity of control devices with varying proprietary protocols, the IEC 61850 standard for grid integration and substation automation communications has been established by the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) Technical Committee 57 within the power and energy sector for all T&D applications.

and energy, especially between the various intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) from different manufacturers. IEC 61850-3, the hardware standard of general requirements, ensures environmental and EMI immunity of network devices used in substations. Another standard for electronic power substations is IEEE 1613, which details environmental and higher standard testing requirements for communications networking devices.

Based on the IEC 61850-3 and IEEE 1613 standards, Advantech’s power and energy products ensure reliable communication and interconnectivity between the intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), the network components and the control platform.

IEC 61850 IEC 61850 is the international standard that defines the hardware and communication requirements for all products within substation automation. IEC 61850 is applied increasingly within substation automation, T&D automation, and grid integration applications. This standard ensures interoperability for the myriad of devices which comprise power

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IEC 61850

Case Story Advantech Provides the Ideal System for Water Heating and Monitoring PRIREV, a Portuguese engineering company, was looking for a solution to monitor the amount of solar energy, the temperatures and the water flow of a solar energy water heating system for an Olympicsized swimming pool generated by their newly developed solar panel. Furthermore, they needed to be able to directly monitor these values and their alarms on LCD panels and have these values saved for future reference. In short, they were looking for a perfect solution.

Advantech offered a distributed solution that used acquisition modules connected through RS485 and with only a two wire bus for data transfer from all the sensors. This system architecture has two core benefits. First, it allows more acquisition module sensors to be added to the system at any time.

Second, it is very easy to add more tags to the software in order to monitor and record those values on a PC. After the project was installed, PRIREV had the additional advantage of not only being able to provide a complete monitoring system, they could also enable their customers to calculate efficiency gains obtained by the use of solar energy, and create reports automatically.

UNO-4673A

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Advantech Europe Service Center Toll Free: 0800-2426-8080 Phone: 31-40-267-7000 Ekkersrijt 5708 Science Park Eindhoven 5692 ER Son The Netherlands

Advantech U.K. Office Toll Free: 00800-2426-8080 Phone: +44-0118-929-4540 Unit 13 Suttons Business Park Suttons Park Avenue Reading Berkshire RG6 1AZ United Kingdom

Advantech Eastern Europe Service Center Phone: 48-22-33-23-730 Ul. Matuszewska 14 Budynek C5 03-876 Warsaw Poland

Advantech France Toll Free: 00800-2426-8080 Phone: 33-1-4119-4666 Le Noblet Hall C 3 Rue du Débarcadère 92700 Colombes France

Advantech Europe Design Center Phone: 49-9621-9732-100 Fuggerstr. 9 92224 Amberg Germany

Advantech Benelux & Nordics Toll Free: 0800-2426-8080 Phone: 31-76-523-3100 Bijster 20A 4817 HX Breda The Netherlands

Advantech Poland Office Phone: 48-22-33-23-740 / 41 Ul. Matuszewska 14 Budynek C5, 03-876 Poland

ADVANTECH Düsseldorf Office Toll Free: 00800-2426-8080 Phone: +49 2103 97885 0 Hochdahler Str. 14 40724 Hilden Germany

Advantech Italy Office Toll Free: 00800-2426-8080 Phone: 39-02-9544-961 Via Roma, 74 20060 Cassina de' Pecchi Milano Italy

Advantech Munich Office Toll Free: 00800-2426-8080 Phone: +49-89-12599-0 Industriestraße 15 82110 Germering München Germany

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