By Gage Drake
We all know how important computers are. There are no offices that can without one and even in the industry, rarely processed so that it is still manually controlled. Computers reduce waste, improve efficiency and increase productivity.
Industrial computers have been around during office PCs and are important tools in reducing costs. But in industrial areas there are challenges for computer manufacturers because they have to design and build industrial PCs to withstand dust, dirt, fluids, and occasional weight impact which are common elements in the industrial environment.
But there are alternatives to use industrial computers. This is not only cost effective but also offers far greater flexibility and less risks for your production process.
Here are three reasons why you should not use industrial computers.
1. Outdated technology.
To be rude, the PC industry is built with solid conditions and is often sealed to protect from elements. It’s fine except that the components in it must be uncomplicated maybe like any damage cannot be repaired on the site. For this reason the operating system and many components are old and trusted technology – reliable but not sophisticated, let your system outdated and maybe inefficient.
A better solution is to buy a standard office PC to whatever specifications you need. You can then place a PC, monitor, printer etc. in an industrial PC enclosure. This device will protect the attached PC from the elements when allowing components to change in moments.
2. Cost.
Industrial computers are very expensive. Not that they are not worth the money because they are built by very skilled producers but to overcome the challenges of the industrial environment that they must be built with very high standards that drive the price of high sky.
A better alternative is to buy a standard PC, off-the-shelf and place it next to the industrial computer coverage. The combined fees of desktop computers and cages may be far less than industrial computers that are bespoke but because the cage will last for decades when the PC fails, just throw on other cheap desktops.
3. Downtime risk.
Industrial computers are sealed and solid state, which is not like their standard PC cannot be opened and has a repaired or replaceable component. When they go down, a service engineer must be called or even worse, they must be returned to the supplier. All of this may take weeks and in the meantime you process the computer that controls must stop. Not too bad if it’s not a critical system, but if yes, what does it cost?
In industrial computer cages it is far more flexible. If the PC closed fails (and let’s face no matter how well it is made or treated properly, all PCs will eventually fail) Simply remove it from coverup and repair / replace the component or just stick back the desktop PC. Even if you don’t have spare parts on the site, you can simply borrow the office PC, load the software and make your production process back and run in minutes than weeks.
