We all take computers for granted, however there are many issues and challenges to deal with, when you put standard computers on to factory floors, due to the amount of dust, fluid and abuse they get. Why should anyone protect a standard PC on the shop floor? The simple answer is that if dust makes contact with the hard drive, this will wipe valuable data off the hard drive, so if the computer is used for shop floor data collection, the days production figures could be eliminated for example. What affect would this have? Production would not know which job has been completed or started, so the production line would have to stop until a manual audit was done to establish the progress of customer orders. Lost production = lost revenue! We all know what happens when fluid mixes with electrics, so we do not have to go into great depths with this, let us just say computers and printers do not like fluid. As for abuse, well we have all experienced the frustrated shop floor worker, who will do anything to slow the business down, if the production line is automated and controlled by computers, this could mean them unplugging the computer, or even worse - causing the computer to fail! Now how do you protect standard computers and printers from this sort of attack? You can either put the computers in offices, rather than on the factory floor or contact a company who specialise in the manufacture of protective computer and printer enclosures, such as Computer Security & Solutions. Computer Security & Solutions has over 12 years experience supplying solutions to Global manufacturers, to ensure their I.
T. equipment is protected from abuse, fluid and dust. Many Global Manufacturers find PC enclosures much more cost effective and flexible than Industrial PCs, due to the lack of maintenance standard PC's in enclosures need. If an Industrial PC fails for either hardware or software issues, it takes a number of days before an engineer is able to get to site to rectify the problem.
With a PC enclosure if a problem occurs, the computer inside can be swapped for another one from an office and the system is back up and running, with very little production downtime.
Graham is the owner of Computer Security & Solutions who specialise in manufacturing protective PC and printer enclosures, having supplied 20 of the Times top 100 businesses. You can find more information at http://www.pcenclosures-direct.com