Electricity + Control July 2015

CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION

ROUND UP

Biometric control system for underground miners

Booyco Electronics ’ biometric control system has attracted widespread interest in the local mining industry after being introduced to mar- ket a little more than a year ago. The unique system was developed specifically for the local operating environment and uses fingerprints to authenticate licenced machine operators. Use is made of personalised smart cards on which an individual operator’s fingerprints and other relevant data such as licensed capabilities and expiry dates are stored.This provides the ideal solution allowing controlled access to moveable items such as earthmoving and mining equip- ment, blasting boxes and carts, as well as con-

veyor starter panels. An operator gains access to and can operate a given machine or piece of equipment by validating his fingerprint on the scanning device on the machine. This same level of control can be applied underground in other control environments, such as explosive magazines and facilitating access control to underground substations. Communica- tions to and from the biometric device takes places via an approved control module, and the system makes provision for an IS unit, powered by an IS power supply housed in a flameproof enclosure, to enable use in coal mines. Enquiries: Anton Lourens. Booyco Electronics. Email anton@booyco-electronics.co.za

Laser scanner – two safety functions in one device

Beckhoff 's 'Many-core controllers’ will play a central role in the future of machine control and in the realisation of Industry 4.0 concepts.Tomeet the rising requirements of Smart Factories, with their increasingly in- telligent machines and production systems, high-performance controllers such as the Beckhoff C6670 industrial server are becom- ing indispensable. To make effective use of this immense computing performance, however, powerful software support, such as that provided by the TwinCAT 3.1 auto- mation platform, is a necessity. Many-core computers differ from conventional Indus- trial PCs in their architecture. They feature Available from Countapulse Controls, the Leuze RSL 400 scanner’s most important feature is that it has two independently adjustable configurations and two safety- related switching output pairs (OSSDs). Together with an operating range of 8,25 m and a scanning angle of 270°, this feature allows two different protection tasks to be performed simultaneously with just the one device. Gerry Bryant, managing director of Countapulse Controls , the distributor in southernAfrica for Leuze sensors, says that this capability means that, in most cases, customers do not need to acquire a second laser scanner, thus reducing their capital investment. Not only are the scanners easy to set up and configure, but they are extremely easy to operate. Functionality and user friendli-

several processors, also referred to as ‘packages’, and each is equipped with mul- tiple cores.Their memory architectures also provide a notable difference. One technique, known as NUMA or non-uniform memory access, provides each processor with its own dedicatedmemory. Beckhoff has imple- mented this design with its C6670 industrial server featuring two Intel Xeon packages, each offering 6, 12, or 18 cores and from 64 to 2 048 GB of RAM.This immense comput- ing power can only be utilised effectively, however, if the performance of each core is fully leveraged byTwinCAT 3.1 software. The flagship control software fromBeckhoff ness are key attributes of the devices and upgrades can be performed quickly and without electronic and mechanical realign- ment, readjustment or configuration. “The RSL 400 range of laser scanners represents a drive towards high quality, combined with simplicity.The goal is to encourage custom- ers to embrace these scanners and the advantages they offer in the safety arena. A separate connection unit, with integrated cable management, ensures uncomplicated mounting and the large, plain-text display with electronic spirit level makes alignment simple,” Bryant points out. The Leuze RSL 400 scanners feature integrated network connectivity. In the first connectivity option, the Ethernet TCP/ IP interface makes it possible to achieve simple and convenient configuration and diagnostics. In addition, the devices can be

controlled and configured wirelessly, via Bluetooth, at distances of up to 10 m. Enquiries: Gerry Bryant.Tel. 011 615 7556 or email bryant@countapulse.co.za

'Many-core control' with 256 processor cores

is capable of mapping the various machine and process workflows – highly suitable for parallelisation and distribution of different tasks as function modules. Enquiries: Email EMCPherson@beckhoff.com

Electricity+Control July ‘15

14