Icebreaker Winch Control Contract for Beijer Electronics
Adria Winch choose QTERM-A7 HMI by Beijer Electronics for use on the open deck of a Russian icebreaker reseach ship.
Adria Winch, a leader in designing and manufacturing 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 QTERM-A7 was chosen because of its ability to operate in harsh environments and its compatibility with existing PLC systems.
The icebreaker ship navigates from the North Pole to Antarctica deploying oceanographic sensors that measure conductivity, temperature and depth of sea water. The QTERM-A7 with iX manages the operating modes, settings, temperatures and calibrations of the winches as well as monitors 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.”
Designed to withstand harsh conditions, the QTERM-A7 is IP66 rated, UL 508, Class I Div 2 and ABS certified, can operate in -30 to 70 °C , and storage of -40 to 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.”