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The Textile Magazine
OctoBER 2011
becoming increasingly important
day by day.
Picanol has always been a pioneer
when it comes to integrating the dif-
ferent machine functions and real-
time applications and controlling
them centrally. But with market re-
quirements pressing for further de-
velopment, the company decided to
develop an entirely new electronic
platform. The Picanol BlueBox is
much more than an upgrade of the
existing electronic platform.
Using the latest microproces-
sor technology, Picanol BlueBox
increases calculation speeds by a
factor of 10, and the larger internal
memory makes it possible to store
much more data, creating new op-
portunities for support and affording
practically unlimited weaving pat-
terns.
Picanol BlueBox is designed to
fully exploit the possibilities of re-
mote service: when it is connected
to the Internet, the company special-
ists around the world can look right
into the heart of the system. For ma-
chines that are not directly connect-
ed to the Internet, the Customer Sys-
tem File (CSF) can be downloaded
onto a USB stick and sent to Picanol
by e-mail. This fle contains all the
data needed by Picanol to analyze
a particular situation and advise the
customer on the action to be taken.
Picanol BlueBox has only a few
types of printed circuit board, cov-
ering all the main functions and op-
tions in a modular way. The actual
number of PCBs will depend on the
features installed on the machine,
but covering many functions with
just a few PCBs signifcantly reduc-
es the inventory of spare parts that
users need to hold.
Robust and future-proof
To ensure maximum long-term
reliability, Picanol BlueBox is de-
signed to operate under the toughest
conditions. To give a few examples:
it can handle weaving room temper-
atures of up to 40°C. It is 100 per
cent short-circuit protected, and in-
serting PCBs in the wrong position
will not cause any damage.
In other words, user-friendliness
and robustness are built into the
system. Every component of the
system, be it hardware or software,
is tested to the limit before being
approved for use on the weaving
machine. Moreover, state-of-the-art
driver technology enables the sys-
tem to detect potential anomalies at
a very early stage and indicate their
location to the user.
w
ITMA 2011
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