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Industry 4.0: Multi-touchscreen assistant for ease of operation
One part of the Industry 4.0 demonstrator presented by Phoenix Contact at SPS IPC drives in Hall 9, booth 310 is a manual workstation. At this station, the labels for terminal blocks are automatically printed and then attached to the terminals by hand. A visual assistance system facilitates the manual process. A panel PC of the Designline product family indicates to workers the exact location where labels need to be placed.
This kind of ease of use is one of the requirements the Scientific Advisory Board of the Industry 4.0 platform places on systems designed according to the future-oriented project. In order to present the ever more complex production structures to users in a comprehensible manner, Phoenix Contact embraces user-friendly interfaces, among other supporting technologies. Since industrial PCs of the Designline range feature a multi-touch display, a complete terminal block can be visualised on the screen. The operator can easily look at terminal details by zooming in using the gesture control feature. Errors displayed in this fashion can be found more quickly and resolved using information or instructions that are also immediately accessible via the same screen. Because the multi-touch technology sensors are located behind a pane of glass, the operability of the touch panel is not affected by harsh industrial environments and will not wear out. It is even possible to control the system with a gloved hand.
