Manufacturing Technology | Trial by Fire… and Ice |
The most important feature a client wants from a Digital Signage system is for it to work. Period. Whether it is installed in a factory for production line metrics, showing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in a distribution center, or in a QSR above a fryer or oven, the Digital Signage player needs to do its job. Failed manufacturing technology means loss of production and profits, which is the death stroke to many companies.
This is why we wanted to see what kind of environmental abuse the ECO-Series SF-200 Digital Signage Player could take, beyond our listed specifications, and still perform at a high level. We needed to know what would happen if the SF-200 was exposed to extreme heat. Would it pass the torture test? We needed to find out! So, our engineers built the Noventri Hot Box. In it, our Digital Signage Player could be monitored while operating in searing temperatures. Here is the analysis of the result. The Manufacturing Technology Stress TestThe SF-200 along with its power supply was forced to run 24 hours a day for 3 months, 2 weeks and a day in ambient temperatures in excess of 150 degrees Fahrenheit. We ran cables to keep it connected to an LCD screen showing our own Corporate Communications. Under these conditions, a PC would have quit working in less than an hour! (Most computer server rooms are required to be kept at a temperature below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.) But the SF-200 continued displaying content, accepting updates, and experienced no downtime after prolonged exposure to temperatures almost 100 degrees above recommendation. No lockups, no reboots and no errors! Our engineers were so impressed with the performance of the SF-200, they even nicknamed the player “Biscuit,” that’s how far it performed above their design specifications. It was getting a little boring at the end of 3 months, so we turned up the heat to almost 200 degrees Fahrenheit. At this point the polycarbonate case began to slowly deform. The SF-200? Still running!Since the heat test was getting a little boring our engineers wanted to see if it would handle the hostilities of the cold. This time “Biscuit” was placed in a freezer for weeks at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. To our amazement, we received the same results. Again, the SF-200 continued displaying content, accepting updates, and experienced no downtime. 
Well, a little annoyed that we haven’t seen a fiery destruction of the SF-200 we decided to switch it up a bit. Now it was into the freezer for the night and into the Hot Box during the day. Results? After a few weeks of the same results as the other tests, we got tired of swapping it back and forth and mounted it on the back of one of our internal communications screens, where it still lives. If it could stand up to these rigors, we knew we had in our hands an environmentally agnostic media player which would run well in thermally stressful environments. The SF-200 could be proudly introduced to manufacturing plants, factories, production lines, and many other industries as a reliable piece of manufacturing technology capable of functioning in less than ideal conditions. How is the SF-200 able to boldly go where no PC has gone before and still operate as efficient manufacturing technology for displaying metrics, corporate communications, and other internal communications needs? The SF-200 benefits from its solid state design, built from the ground up to handle adverse environments. Unlike a PC based system, it has no moving parts. This means less failure points, and it has no need of a fan or heating/cooling in order to function. It can be mounted inside a wall or in extremely dusty area and it will continue to work the same as if it was in a temperature controlled office. This functionality, combined with the other operational features developed for the SF-200, such as the ability to extract data from databases like SQL, Oracle, MySql, and other ODBC compliant databases, provides plant managers, HR departments, and corporate communication directors a valuable asset for displaying pertinent information on LCD screens strategically placed throughout the facility. To learn more about how Noventri solutions can benefit manufacturing applications, visit the manufacturing articles section of the Noventri website. |
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