Internet Technology Reaches the Shop Floor

The web browser interface that is becoming so familiar to young and old has now become a medium for machine control. Process Control Corp.’s PCCWeb system allows the user to control a Guardian blender with only a standard web browser-enabled computer. No special software is needed to download recipes, monitor and control current operation, and examine diagnostics.

“We have seen an urgent need for much better monitoring systems for gravimetric blending and extrusion control. Process Control committed to develop a communications system that is far easier for the processor to set up and use, at very low cost, than has previously been available on the market,” says Joseph Robertson, CEO.

The PCCWeb system combines an embedded web server with a built-in Ethernet port. Web pages are pre-designed so the user needs only basic Internet browsing skills to operate the machine. The use of standard Internet technologies frees the user from maintaining custom software and hardware for remotely accessing their equipment. And since the PCCWeb interface is built in to the equipment, no additional server computers are required.

The addition of a single low-cost network modem allows access to all PCCWeb enhanced equipment in a plant from anywhere in the world either via the Internet or by remote modem dial-in.The PCCWeb software upgrade is available free to all Process Control Guardian blender owners.