Industry Automation

Robust Operation in Extended Temperature and Voltage Environments

Industrial-grade motherboards are designed with extended temperature ranges required for industrial automation. DFI conducts thermal testing for each product at each step of the production process. With a temperature range of -40ºC to 85ºC, DFI’s Mini-ITX products significantly reduce failure rates during operation in extreme environmental conditions. Motherboards need to be able to operate not only in extreme temperatures but also across a wide range of voltages. Unstable, incorrect or transient supply voltages may damage electronic components or cause a system shutdown. Addressing these problems, DFI’s industrial-grade motherboards support wide voltage ranges (9~36V) — one of the most robust in the embedded industry — offering clients the opportunity to develop fault resilient automated equipment.

Protective Coating Technology for Critical Industrial Environments

Industrial equipment working in factories are sometimes exposed to extreme conditions including extreme temperatures, chemicals, humidity, dust and other environmental conditions that can interrupt system operation. To satisfy the industrial applications that demand embedded computing performance with increased durability and reliability, DFI offers conformal coating for improved electromagnetic interference immunity and protection against corrosion, humidity, and dust. A conformal coating is a protective chemical material which conforms to the contours of a printed circuit board. The coating shields sensitive electronic components within the PCB and protects against moisture, dust, salt, and corrosion caused by extreme environments. It not only supports excellent dielectric properties, but also enhances system reliability and stability and extends the working life of the PCB.

Embedded Systems for Machine Vision

Factory automation facilities continue to automate manual processes on the shop floor. Machine vision has become industrial automation’s new lens, especially in critical environments and high-speed mass production. The use of machine vision and its precise quality control helps to increase production capacity and decrease costs. The core of a machine vision system is an industrial-grade camera capturing high-resolution images. The computer detects defects and makes decisions about inspection and process control. To improve image analysis and shorten response-time, the machine vision system controller requires powerful processing capabilities and versatile connectivity.

DFI’s embedded system series based on the latest Intel CPUs is an ideal processor in a machine vision system. It comes with high image processing performance and multiple expansion slots for graphics cards or capture cards. It also supports a range of environments with active-cooling and fanless models serving a range of power consumption requirements. For machine vision, a popular configuration includes PoE ports and high-speed USB 3.0 for cameras. Also, the power input supports an extended voltage range (9-36V) for factory automation environments. DFI offers a complete embedded product portfolio serving a wide array of industrial and machine vision applications.