Why Change Was Necessary
To meet the growing needs of its customers, Shurtape Technologies, Inc invests aggressively in new technology and equipment. Using automation, simplicity, and efficiency as guiding principles, Shurtape reviews its process with the goal of producing the finest tapes in the industry, while satisfying customer requirements for highly competitive pricing, dependable quality, reliable performance, and rapid delivery. The company manufactures a wide range of quality paper masking, polypropylene, coated vinyl, metalized cloth, and duct tapes, serving a variety of adhesive tape applications in markets that include automotive, HVAC and construction, power and utility, and military and aerospace industries.
Constant expansion and improvement bring continuing change and system enhancements. Delivering new machine interface screens and display stations on a regular basis is difficult at any time, but in an active manufacturing facility this must be done with as little disruption in production as possible. Unusual physical constraints are also faced when new displays and computers are required around an existing production line.
The need to bring new displays online rapidly under these conditions meant that Shurtape had to find a system that would install in limited space and in less time than a traditional PC -- and the solution had to be both cost effective and reliable. ACP's Thin Client solution meets all of these requirements.
Implementing ACP Technology
ACP's ThinManager®, an enhancement to the basic Windows® Terminal Server operating systems such as Windows® 2000 and 2003 Server, adds features that focus on the industrial market, allowing users to replace the PCs they are now using on the factory floor with inexpensive "Windows terminals" that are much easier (and less expensive) to maintain. While any Thin Client will allow multiple instances of existing Windows® software to run on a single PC (the terminal server), only ACP-enabled Thin Clients running under ThinManager® provide the functionality, redundancy, and I/O required in industrial installations.
Shurtape's move to Thin Clients started in April 2001 and has continued to evolve. The clients are located throughout the facility and use Wonderware's FactorySuite to display information from as many as eight different PLCs. Because of the centralized software model inherent in the Thin Client architecture, new display stations go online in record time, simply by installing another Thin Client, touchscreen, and cable. No new software has to be installed.
Five Windows 2000 servers host all of the Advantech industrial Thin Clients used at the plant. The clients' small size, coupled with their resistance to vibration and heat, makes them easy to mount almost anywhere -- a must when working in cramped conditions.
"Each time a new interface point is identified, it is only a matter of installing another Thin Client, touchscreen, and cable," says Ron Griffin, Shurtape's engineering services supervisor. "It takes less than a day to complete . . . project costs are reduced by 40%."
Thin Client Benefits
Before the switch to Thin Clients, it took approximately three hours to load and configure the appropriate PC software each time a new display was required. Now a new display can be added simply by plugging in a new Thin Client and turning it on. A new terminal server can even be configured in less than four hours. Also, in the unlikely event of a Thin Client failure, downtime is drastically reduced compared with the time required to correct a PC failure.
Switching to Thin Clients resulted in project cost reductions of 40%, and Shurtape now has the ability to display information across the plant with a low-cost, effective solution -- one that is also very easy to configure.
