HMI Operator Interfaces and Panel PCs With Hazard-Based Safety
Date: 5/5/2014 AIS Improves Usability, Efficiency, and Safety Human Machine Interface Systems with Hazard-Based Safety Engineering (HBSE) Standards & Testing for Operation, Control and Monitoring AIS’s Highly-Reliable Operator Interfaces and Touch Screen Panel PCs are Tested to Meet IEC 62368-1 Safety Standards and Certifications for Information & Communication Technology Equipment In the next five years, the predominant approach to safety engineering will significant shift from prescriptive rules to a new hazard-based concept, with more performance-based options. The new hazards-based standard is expected to be advantageous for AIS who designs, engineers and manufacturers highly advanced, reliable and safe open-based platform PC-based HMIs for their customers. Their Design for Manufacturability Services (DMS) and capabilities for open platform HMIs are focused on hazard-based principles, which are more performance-based requirements (vs. prescriptive) and their ability to better consider and incorporate innovative HMI and visualization systems design and construction. IEC 62368-1 and Standards Will Effect Compliance, Certification & Standards Testing for HMI Manufacturers The IEC 62368-1 – Audio/Video, Information and Communication Technology Equipment – Safety Requirements – has been an IEC standard since early 2010. The new approach, based on Hazard-Based Safety Engineering (HBSE), has the added benefit of better facilitating the introduction of new and innovative methods of construction and technology without first requiring amendment of the relevant standards to accommodate it. The new standards cover a wide range of high-tech products, including: computing and networking products, consumer electronics, displays and display units, telecommunication products, office appliances, musical instruments and similar varieties of audio/video, information and communication technology equipment. AIS’s Open Platform HMI Product Development Teams Focus on Testing & Meeting Changing Standards, Certifications & Compliance Requirements Human machine interfaces (HMIs) have always played a critical role in enabling plant operators to monitor and perform critical control actions in an operational context as well as facilitating advanced visualization into supervisory and enterprise-level solutions. In order to design and manufacturer highly-reliable HMI systems that deliver safe, cost-effective and intuitive performance, the AIS DMS team relies on the application of engineering best practices throughout design, testing and quality assurance processes. AIS foresee several trends in manufacturing plants and industrial facilities to change business. Internet-based (TCP/IP-enabled) technologies will continue to drive how HMIs are designed, engineered and manufactured in the future. With increasing product liabilities, standards, certifications and compliance, there will be a strong push for open-based HMI control and monitoring equipment that provide higher quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, and above all else, higher safety requirements. The process industry and applications such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and utilities and discrete manufacturing applications (such as general manufacturing, automotive, metals manufacturing, packaging, aerospace and defense, electronics and semiconductors and machine tools) are also factors in AIS’s product portfolio roadmap in the coming years. AIS HMI Control and Monitoring Solutions Meet Future Expectations & Demands AIS realizes user expectations of HMI capabilities are continuously changing. Some of the key shifts impacting the operating and monitoring functions in the industrial space, and how AIS is already meeting these demands with their product portfolio include the following: Increased Demand for Comprehensive Certifications and Compliances Increased Demand for High Performance HMI Processor, Graphic, Memory and Power Increased Demand for High Availability HMI Communication and Storage Increased Demand for High Reliability HMI Touch Screen Increased Demand for Rugged and Maintenance-Free Increased Demand for Comprehensive Operating System Software & Services About AIS Headquartered in Irvine, California, USA, American Industrial Systems, Inc. (AIS) offers in-house electronic and mechanical design, software development, manufacturing, production and quality control services. Offering one of the widest ranges of industrial computing solutions, AIS open platform control and monitoring solutions are available in a multitude of configurations for Industrial, Building Automation, Food & Beverages, and Oil & Gas applications. The company’s HMI solutions are key enabling technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things, (IIoT), Machine-to-Machine Communications (M2M) and Industry 4.0 applications. AIS is fully committed to empowering, improving and delivering turnkey HMI, control, monitoring and display solutions for OEM, ODM and end-user customers. AIS is an ISO 9001:2008 certified supplier and manufacturer of rugged computers and displays. For more information, visit:www.aispro.com, email: sales@aispro.com or contact: 1-888-485-6688.
IRVINE, CALIFORNIA – May 5, 2014 – American Industrial Systems, Inc. (AIS), the leading designer and manufacturer of open platform operator interfaces, touchscreens and panel PCs, announces its HMI design for manufacturability services for the new IEC 62368-1 hazard-based standard that will replace both IEC 60065 (Safety of AV Equipment) and IEC 60950-1 (Safety of Information & Communication Technology Equipment). The IEC 62368-1 Second Edition CB Certificates and Standards represent a major change or shift in focus in how the standards are being developed. The traditional prescriptive standards focuses on establishing a set of written rules to be followed, whereas the new hazards-based standard is focused on identifying safety hazards in the early product development phase and designing the product to eliminate them – and providing more performance options to demonstrate compliance to the standards. These new hazards-based testing methods require a more comprehensive and holistic approach to Design for Manufacturability, in which AIS already has tremendous expertise, in-house capabilities and services for over the past decade.
In the ever-changing world of digital technology, safety standards for high-tech products are constantly being updated or developed to reflect new changes. Manufacturers need to transition their approach and stay abreast of ongoing developments of both the current standards (60065 & 60950) and IEC & UL/CSA 62368-1, the alternative to those traditional safety standards. As a leader in operation, control, monitoring and visualization technologies, standards and compliance testing are critical components to AIS’s overall new product development process. AIS is addressing these new standards requirements by now testing to meet IEC 62368-1 Safety Standards and Certifications for Information & Communication Technology Equipment.