Computer failure can be as costly as it can be annoying. With an office PC a new unit can be quickly installed with little need to call a service engineer. However, in the world of industrial computers a PC failure can be catastrophic.
Industrial computers quite often control production processes, manufacturing lines and stock control and when one fails it can mean a costly production stoppage.
The problems with industrial computers are that they are designed to withstand harsh environments that conventional PC’s do not have to face. Dust, dirt, liquid, grime, grease, heavy impacts and extreme temperatures are all factors that will finish off a computer.
For this reason industrial computers are designed to be intrinsically sealed and solid state, they also run old versions of software and components as these ensure greater reliability. Unfortunately the design of these computers means that once they go down a specialist engineer needs to be called to repair, replace or upgrade the unit.
However, a far less expensive alternative to the industrial computer is the industrial computer enclosure. These have a huge advantage of industrial computers in that they house a conventional desktop PC. This means that the specifications of the computer can be chosen by the user (rather than trust outdated technology) and in case of repair, upgrade or replacement the PC can be removed from computer enclosure and simply replaced without the need of a specialist engineer.
Industrial computer enclosures also offer the same guaranteed protection than a bespoke industrial PC. Many of these industrial PC enclosures are rated according to the protection they offer by NEMA (US) and IP ratings (Europe).
Industrial computer enclosures are also a fraction of the cost of an industrial computer, even taking into account the enclosed PC and industrial computer enclosure together it is still a fraction of the cost of a dedicated industrial computer.
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