GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, today announced the introduction of StationPortal™, a breakthrough solution for discrete assembly support tasks. StationPortal provides a completely new architecture for assembly support systems, greatly increasing the speed of deployment and optimization, while providing a significantly lower total cost of ownership. This product is a great fit for tasks such as error proofing, line balancing, material call, and other production support tasks.
StationPortal provides a common Ethernet interface for typically disparate I/O such as pushbuttons, bar-code scanners, LEDs, and torque guns. These inputs, and more importantly their information, tie directly into GE Fanuc’s new Proficy® HMI/SCADA -CIMPLICITY 8.0 software package for discrete manufacturing which comes with a 100–tag data historian. This architecture provides the power and flexibility of a central, server-based configuration. StationPortal’s installation is so simple it only requires standard wall power and an Ethernet connection.
“StationPortal is an alternative way of setting up the factory floor, because it gets rid of the traditional reliance on more expensive and complex, PLC-based assembly support systems,” said Jason Messinger, GE Fanuc Product Manager for StationPortal. “By using a central, server-based configuration over Ethernet, manufacturers can eliminate PLCs and flatten the architecture for production support tasks. This simpler architecture gives the user increased flexibility and drastically reduces the time required for activities such as line balancing and system modifications.”
Each StationPortal unit has three discrete inputs, three discrete outputs, three colored lamps, one pushbutton, one horn, and one serial port. Each of these data points is mapped directly into CIMPLICITY.
For more information on StationPortal, visit: www.gefanuc.com/stationportal.
