Russian Icebreaker Ship Relies on Robust HMI

March 11, 2013
Winches operated on ships traveling between the North Pole and Antarctica get new human machine interfaces that stand up against harsh elements.

Adria Winch, a manufacturer of hydraulic, electrical and pneumatic deck equipment for vessels, has chosen the Qterm-A7 human machine interface (HMI) with iX software by Beijer Electronics to control five oceanographic winches located on an open deck of a Russian research icebreaker ship.

The icebreaker ship navigates from the North Pole to Antarctica deploying oceanographic sensors. The QTerm-A7 with iX manages the operating modes, settings, temperatures and calibrations of the winches, and monitors the rope length (2 km to 8 km), speed and force used to deploy the sensors.

“We chose the QTerm-A7 because of its robustness,” said Miroslav Komlenovic, senior design engineer at Adria Winch. “The Qterm-A7 can operate at temperatures as low as -30° C, has IP66 protection and is compatible with our current PLC system.”

The QTerm-A7 is IP66 rated, UL 508, Class I Div 2 and ABS certified, and operates in -30° to 70° C, and can be stored in temperatures between -40° and 85° C. Additional features include a widescreen 7” TFT-LCD display with resistive touch screen, 10/100Base-T Ethernet, two USB 2.0 full-speed host ports and two serial ports.

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 or iX software is available on the QTerm-A7. iX includes multiple drivers to communicate with automation equipment, scalable vector-based graphics, open architecture and a variety of HMI functions (i.e., alarms, trends, recipes).

“The demanding conditions commonly found in this environment has put the Qterm-A7 to the test,” said Bob Mullins, industrial product manager of Beijer Electronics. “But with the rigorous environmental testing and industrial certifications, we feel that our Qterm-A7 fits perfectly with Adria Winch and their marine requirements.”

More information available on the QTerm-A7.

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