HMI for Industrial Air-conditioning Control Systems

Application: Facility Management Location: Taiwan

Project Introduction: Traditional air-conditioning control systems provide only a simple text display or push buttons for cooling operation. In recent years, many industrial companies have become increasingly concerned with saving energy and managing performance. These concerns, along with increasingly complex Building Management systems are beginning to necessitate HMI control capabilities for industrial air-conditioning control systems.

System Requirements:
Industrial water-cooled air-conditioning units are designed to provide high performance under high-temperature and high-stress environments. Therefore powerful and reliable control devices are a key part of maintaining operating efficiency. Furthermore, detailed maintenance information for servicing can be highly beneficial in maintaining performance and saving costs.
A customer turned to Advantech when they needed to upgrade their exiting air-conditioning control systems, and had the following detailed requirements:

• Reliable performance in a harsh working environment
• Reliable performance in a high shock & vibration environment
• Installation in a space-constrained area
• Low power consuming
• Driven by an Open platform with embedded OS
• Clear display with touchscreen capabilities
  

Project Implementation:

TPC-30T:

3.5" QVGA TFT LCD XScale PXA270 Touch Panel Computer

System Diagram:

System Description:
Temperature sensors, pressure sensors, and the thermal couples all send signals to the PLC for processing independent control functions. The TPC-30T is connected to the PCL by RS-232 for displaying the control process through the GUI via HMI interface. Furthermore, the service engineer can check system safety alarm historical messages as well as the operating schedule for future maintenance information.

Advantech's TPC- 30T with WinCE 5.0 works well with customized software for managing air-conditioning units in different levels of efficiency, and the operating engineer can easily view the Air-conditioner status at any time. The operator can fully trust the high reliability and easily mange the entire system remotely from the central control room.

Conclusion:
Advantech's TPC-30T with WinCE 5.0 is highly suitable for various types of Building Management systems. In this application, the operating engineer can easily view and manage the entire air-conditioning control system from one status and operating schedule, which is important information for maintaining a high level of efficiency.
When the maintenance engineer is on duty, he can download all related operating conditions for service reference, with powerful computing, communication, control, and display capabilities in a very user friendly operating environment.