Monitor/Control Blenders Via Internet Browser.

Now you can remotely monitor and control gravimetric blenders on all the extrusion lines in your plant using no more than a personal computer with a modem and a Web browser. PCCWeb, introduced by Process Control Corp. in Atlanta, is an early example of what may become a trend toward shop-floor communications via browser software. With PCCWeb, no special software or hardware is needed to download recipes, monitor and control blender operation, or conduct diagnostic checks, says John Hotchkiss, v.p. of engineering.

Process Control offers PCCWeb on its Guardian series gravimetric batch blenders (it can be retrofitted). Since these blenders can also provide gravimetric extrusion yield control, PCCWeb can also monitor and control the extrusion line.

With PCCWeb, a web server and an Ethernet port are built into the blender. The server uses the same HTML language to create information screens as is used to display pages seen on the Internet. Those interactive blender data screens are designed as web pages. Process Control offers 80-100 pre-designed screens that provide system configuration and process information such as start/stop, set-up, and alarms.

A remote user can access the blenders via an "intranet" contained within the plant, or an outside "extranet." An intranet is an Ethernet local-area network (LAN), to which multiple Guardian blenders are linked. The user would first access the network, then the "web page" for a particular blender. Each blender is assigned an "address" via conventional Internet protocols. With the extranet alternative, a remote operator would access the World Wide Web and go to a secure website to access individual blenders.

Process Control plans to demonstrate PCCWeb at the NPE 2000 show in Chicago this June.