F & A Data Systems Gains Direct Control with INGEAR |
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CimQuest INGEAR
518 Kimberton Rd
Phoenixville, PA, 19460
USA
Press release date: October 15, 2010
F&A Data Systems Vice President Jim Feeney states, "F& A Data Systems develops Warehousing and Material Handling Control Solutions. Our primary clients are retailers. We have software that controls everything from small automated packaging lines to large-scale conveyor, sortation and monorail systems. Our software extends to the management of Shipping, Receiving, Packing, Storage and Retrieval, and e-Commerce Fulfillment operations. For some of our clients, everything that happens within their Distribution Center is controlled through our software.
Historically we've run on mid-scale UNIX machines like IBM's AIX based P-Series Servers. Within that platform, our software made use of Rockwell's Interchange Software product to provide communication between our server and the material handling systems under our control. The conveyor systems were controlled by Allen Bradley PLC, SLC, ControlLogix, and MicroLogix processors."
Before selecting INGEAR Feeney looked to see how the firm could interface with those processes that would accommodate the smaller systems. Fenney noted, "We wanted to employ embedded communication drivers rather than Rockwell's RSLinx or a similar style of OPC communication service like KEPWare. We wished to avoid the overhead of that type of solution and we also wanted more direct control rather than the "black box" approach of RSLinx. Key to our approach in the UNIX systems was Interchange's ability to receive unsolicited messages directly from the PLC. An unsolicited message is sent by the conveyor's processor (say a PLC-5) to us to notify us immediately of an event that needs attention, such as a carton on the conveyor system. Without unsolicited messages, our software would have to periodically poll the conveyor's processor looking for new events. To provide the best possible response time, you'd have to poll very quickly- but that's a network beater. Polling slower is more network polite, but the trade off would be a time lag in sensing the event. Using Unsolicited Messages provides the best response with no network impact."
ABOUT F&A DATA SYSTEMS Since 1987, F&A Data has been focusing efforts in the Warehousing and Distribution industries. The combination of innovative system design and outstanding support allows them to provide optimized solutions for your special requirements. F&A Data controls and systems played an important role in the first application of automated palletization for a retail distribution center and were closely involved with the first application of cross-belt sorting technology for specialty-store order fulfillment.
F & A Data Systems Gains Direct Control with INGEAR INGEAR.NET Contact us CimQuest INGEAR 518 Kimberton Rd Ste 325 Phoenixville, PA 19460 www.ingeardrivers.com Toll Free: 1.866.935.7979 Telephone: 1.610.935.8282 CASE STUDY- WAREHOUSE AND MATERIAL HANDLING CONTROL F&A Data Systems 434 Highway 18 East Brunswick, NJ 08816 723.238.5800 www.fadata.com
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