How Does An Industrial Computer Fit Into Industrial Computing?

Computers designed for factory and industrial workloads are known as industrial computers and they are specifically built for handling machine automation, manufacturing equipment, and the latest robotic technologies.

How Does An Industrial Computer Fit Into Industrial Computing?

The main advantage of industrial computers is their ability to perform well in harsh industrial environments.

The rugged design concept for industrial computers is characterized by fanless cooling, cableless connections that eliminate moving parts, and dust and water resistance. Industrial computers possess these features, which are important for deployments of industrial automation, as they guarantee stability and efficiency.

• Why Are Industrial Computers Different From Commercial Desktop Computers?

Because of its deployment use cases, industrial computers are very different from commercial desktop computers. A desktop computer's internal components (CPU, Memory, Storage) may seem similar to an industrial computer's; however, industrial computers are built with rugged features designed to ensure absolute reliability and accuracy in industrial automation machines.

To ensure the lowest total cost of ownership when integrating computing hardware, you should compare and evaluate many design features that are integral to the performance and stability of industrial computers:

• The form factor of the enclosure:

It is common for industrial computers to operate in harsh factory conditions where high temperatures, vibrations, and voltage spikes can compromise their health. The internal components of industrial computers are often made of alloy materials, which are heat- and vibration-resistant.

In most cases, an external enclosure consists of an aluminum chassis that serves as a heat sink for critical internal components such as the central processing unit, memory, and storage.

• Computing Components:

The components used in industrial computers should be industrial grade and have been proven to operate in harsh industrial environments. An industrial computer design is made up of every component, from the motherboard to the electrical solder capacitors, depending on what it needs to perform in a production environment.

• Containment of dust and particulates:

Industrial computers are intended to be deployed in environments with dust and foreign debris such as factory automation and mining processes. Due to their rugged design, industrial computers do not require cooling vents, preventing dust and other particulates from negatively impacting the computer's performance in harsh environments.

• Exceptionally high temperature:

Computers needed for many industrial applications have to resist extremely high temperatures. These specialized computers have been designed with a fanless system architecture to keep a broad operating temperature range because computers with fans are subject to dust contamination. In the harsh global environment, where temperatures are often uncontrollable, these industrial computers are able to function. It is possible to run industrial computers at temperatures from -40C to 70C (-40F to 158F), so they can function in colder as well as hotter environments.

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• Industrial computing ports most popular for I/O

There has been a major shift of data and its value across IT and OT processes as technological advances in connected objects, big data, and machine learning increase demands on manufacturing and automation.

In this 'industry 4.0' era, more and more devices are being connected to physical machines, with the result that computing systems must be highly versatile and able to perform an array of complex tasks efficiently.

As an example, industrial computers are now used to consolidate and consolidate local or edge workloads. Essentially, industrial computing systems now must have the capability of managing a variety of systems that provide useful real-time information.

As a result, industrial computers support a wide array of input and output ports (I/O).