Posted to News on 8th Nov 2021, 00:00
Explosion-proof solutions for smart production
On the Industry 4.0 map, hazardous areas still appear as white spots in many manufacturing operations. The requirements for robustness and explosion protection are high, the terrain extensive, and connectivity often limited. This where the intrinsically safe smart devices from the Pepperl+Fuchs brand Ecom Instruments come in, and at SPS the company will be demonstrating how the gap between the safety requirements of hazardous areas and the hunger for data of the smart factory can be closed.
The manufacturer’s trade fair highlights include Visor-Ex 01, claimed to be the lightest intrinsically safe smart glasses on the market, and Tab-Ex 03 DZ2, the latest model in the Tab-Ex range of intrinsically safe tablets for rough industrial environments. Fair visitors will also learn how the solutions of Ecom’s digital products and services product division not only facilitate device management, but can also provide new insights into processes with the help of data analysis.
With the Visor-Ex 01 smart glasses, Ecom Instruments says mobile workers get a powerful companion for all tasks that require hands-free use as well as continuous communication. The system utilises the Ecom Smart-Ex 02 smartphone for hazardous areas as a computing unit and a pocket unit for power supply, an intelligent ecosystem is created for a wide range of application scenarios in the industrial sector.
A total of three integrated cameras transform the smart wearable into a kind of bionic eye. Two 16-megapixel cameras are centrally positioned to map the wearer's natural field of vision - so remote support, for example, sees what is happening from the same angle and perspective as the mobile worker. A secondary camera offers a 6x optical zoom for zooming without loss of quality and scanning of barcodes and QR codes.
The intrinsically safe Tab-Ex 03 DZ2 tablet offers Android 11, a large display and as well as larger RAM and external storage than previous models. The enterprise edition of Samsung Knox ensures high data and device security. The tablet, which is based on the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active3, is easy to operate with gloves or the S Pen stylus. A 13-megapixel camera is installed for taking photos and videos, and the front camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels. The integrated Google ARCore makes the tablet fit for augmented reality applications in Industry 4.0, for example for plant management or predictive maintenance. Meanwhile, an individually programmable button enables, among other things, a quick and effective alarm, emergency calls or push-to-talk (PTT) for maximum safety and accessibility of employees at any time.
