Technical Articles & Industry Trends

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The Best Industrial PC Setup, according to your Industry Type 

When it comes to jobs in industrial settings, the last thing you want to worry about is equipment failure. In harsh and dynamic environments, you and your team have enough hard work to handle without adding gear repair to the list. But how can your tech withstand the beatings they’ll take in your industry? There may be more than one answer. 

To ensure maximum longevity and ROI on your industrial PC solutions, it’s critical to assess the demands of your specific environment, and shop accordingly. Will the computer be exposed to moisture? Will it be in a dusty environment, or in an extreme temperature? What about transportation — will it be moved around or fixed in place? 

In this article, we’ll highlight a few common applications where our satisfied customers put Teguar’s industrial computers to the test. We’ll explain what setup is ideal for that application and some key factors as to why it works. Your industry may not be specifically mentioned below, but we hope the explanations will provide some insights you can apply to your own needs. 

Marine Environments 

To start with an obvious one: any computer operating on or near a body of water is going to need to handle getting wet. An IP rating of at least 66 is essential, and a full IP69K is recommended for full waterproofing. This rating ensures the device — usually made with a stainless steel enclosure — is tightly sealed for immunity against temporary submersion and even high pressure water jets.  If you’re dealing with salt water or other corrosive liquid, you will need to upgrade to 316L stainless steel. 

Consider your setting and budget when choosing between protected cable glands or the ultra-secure M12 connectors. To minimize external connections (potential points of moisture ingress), you may want an all-in-one unit, which combines PC and display. 

Vehicle Computing 

For tracking routes and deliveries in a truck, organization management on a forklift, and more, smart computing in vehicles has become the standard for consumer and commercial use alike. To hold up to the vibrations of a moving vehicle, you need a computer solution with a strong shock resistance. The best rugged tablet PCs are MIL-STD-810H rated, which is military-grade resilience to these kinds of vibrations. 

A Hint from Teguar Experts: When shopping for the perfect rugged tablet, consider whether you need a battery and how you will provide power.  Often, the vehicle has built-in DC voltage, so ensuring it is in the acceptable range and can physically connect to your computer is a key detail to consider early on. 

With screen sizes from 6 to 13 inches and custom-fitted vehicle docks, a rugged tablet provides a diverse solution and is our recommendation for vehicles of any kind. 

Building Automation 

Smart building management puts temperature control, automated time-based locks and facility lighting, security systems, and more at the user’s fingertips in one terminal. A panel PC mounted in a wall cutout makes for a clean and inobtrusive solution in office buildings, apartment lobbies, and other shared facilities. 

The embedded panel keeps I/Os safe from interference from the bustle of visitors coming in and out, and a precise touch screen allows the user to operate without any external keyboard, mouse, etc. Lastly, panel PC lines that maintain their enclosure shape over time allow for easy long-term CPU upgrades without needing to alter the wall cutout. 

Consider the depth of your installation location and be sure your panel PC can fit with room for cables. If space is a constraint, consider our TP- Series, with screen sizes as compact as 7 inches; or, look forward to our brand-new Pinnacle Series, which has the highest display-to-cutout ratio in the industry.  

Machine Vision 

For tasks requiring real-time analysis, you need a high-performance CPU. A rugged embedded PC is a perfect solution to fit efficient computing into a tough enclosure. We know space is at a premium in many workspaces, so be sure to understand your size and mounting requirements before you shop for a product. Teguar offers both ultra-compact and larger, expandable embedded PCs that can be mounted in a variety of ways, such as rack, DIN rail, wall mount, and more. Look for the Intel® Core i or Core Ultra line of processors for the highest performance, and Celeron or Atom for a low power draw in simpler use cases. 

An industrial PC with PCIe slots will allow for maximum customizability, or the addition of a strong graphics card. For the most critical operations, consider a PC with dual LAN ports for that added security in network redundancy. 

Oil and Gas 

When shopping an industrial PC for any application in the oil and gas industry, you will need to consider two primary environmental factors: 

1. The temperature range your PC will be exposed to, and 
2. the sunlight the screen will have to overcome. 

Units with wide operating temperature ranges and high brightness options are available from Teguar and are usually essential for this industry.

Once that’s squared away, what type of computer is best? For these oil and drilling applications, consider a Class 1 Division 2 explosion-proof unit that’s certified for safe use in hazardous locations. These are typically all-in-one — PC plus display — to minimize points of failure.

These hazardous location all-in-ones are also a suitable choice for military and aerospace applications — just remember that government purchased units will require TAA compliance. 

Industrial PCs of All Shapes and Sizes 

We hope this has given you some helpful insight into what type of configuration could best suit your needs. You can further explore other industrial applications here. 

Whatever your application is, if you need a computing solution that’s designed to perform and built to last, Teguar has got you covered. We stand out from the competition with our United States-based team, long-term support, and lifecycle guarantees. 

Need a bit more personalized advice on what products could work for you? We want to talk about it. Fill out the form below to get in touch with a specialist right away — you can browse our industrial computers while you wait to hear back. 

About the Authors:

Madelyn Brannan serves as the Digital Marketing Coordinator at Teguar, which presents an engaging opportunity to learn new things. She strives to help current and future customers by making them aware of the solutions that Teguar can provide. When Madelyn isn't researching things like you've just read about, they like to draw and play tabletop games.

Our stainless steel industrial PCs are built for extreme environments, featuring IP66, IP66K, and IP69K-rated enclosures that withstand high-pressure washdowns, high temperatures, and chemical exposure. Designed for food and beverage processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, chemical production, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries, these rugged panel PCs offer capacitive touchscreens in 10.1″, 12.1″, 15.0″, 19.0″, and 21.5″ sizes, with options for high brightness, optical bonding, and extended temperature support. Available with SUS304 stainless steel front bezels or 316 stainless steel chassis, they ensure long-term durability and superior corrosion resistance in sanitary and industrial settings.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit stainless steel panel pc.

Powered by Windows® OS, these high-performance industrial computers support SCADA software like FactoryTalk® View, Ignition™, AVEVA™ Edge, and Wonderware®, as well as programming languages such as Visual Basic, Python, and C++ for custom automation applications. Whether you need Class 1, Div 2-certified industrial PCs or rugged touchscreen computers for hygienic production areas, our customizable solutions provide the reliability, durability, and performance your operations demand..

Class 1 Division 2, or C1D2, is one of the most important factors to consider when looking for rugged industrial PC to use in hazardous industries. Any electronics being used in a potentially dangerous environment, or around flammable hazards must be C1D2 certified to prevent dangerous explosions and ensure worker safety.

The Classes define the type of explosive or ignitable substances which are present in the atmosphere such as:

• Class I locations are those in which flammable vapors and gases may be present.
• Class II locations are those in which combustible dust may be found.

If your goal is to enhance efficiency, optimize operations, avoid unplanned downtime, or lower total cost of ownership, we can help. Today’s technology offers innovative industrial process control solutions. Whether it’s integrating process control, motor control, safety, and information solutions, our products can help you address your unique challenges head on. Learn more about the industries we serve and discover why more and more companies are choosing Maple Systems.

Our customer is a leading OEM manufacturer of custom stainless steel processing equipment and a preferred provider of quality products and services to the cheese, dairy, food, beverage, and other sanitary industries. Our Stainless-Steel PCs meet the international food safety grade requirement, EN -2 certification; DIN Part 2 for the durability of chemical substances; and FDA 21CFR 177..

Read how choosing a Maple Systems Stainless Steel Industrial PC with capacitive touch screen and a Windows OS met their requirements.

Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is a control system architecture that uses computers (PCs), networked data communications, and human machine interfaces (HMI) for high-level process supervisory management but uses other peripheral devices such as programmable logic controllers (PLC). As you can imagine, this can take on a wide range of functionality, complexity, hardware, and software solutions.

We offer all the elements you need to create your own level of supervisory data acquisition and control, from the simplest stand-alone machine to sophisticated multi-device networked production line(s), all the way to enterprise-level operations and IIoT functionalities leveraging cloud connectivity.

To learn more about how our products work together to create scalable SCADA solutions, visit our SCADA solutions page.

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