Just like using a PAD (tablet), with a pinch and a stretch, you can grasp all the industrial site situations at your fingertips; sitting in the office with a PAD or smartphone, you can connect to the network to remotely monitor the industrial site and make timely adjustments… Such a scene, once so unattainable in dreams, has now become real and clear. Amid the wave of the third industrial revolution, emerging IT technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, mobile connectivity, and big data are gradually penetrating into industrial manufacturing. Industrial designers are also beginning to consider bringing popular trends from the consumer sector into industrial production, shortening the gap between industry and consumption, making everything more accessible and convenient, while ensuring the unique safety and reliability of industrial production. The Magelis™ GTU advanced graphic touch screen launched by Schneider Electric is a prime example of the organic combination of the latest IT technology and industrial control technology, bringing an innovative intelligent experience to the industrial HMI field. Outstanding Product Performance
“Leading the Era” Magelis™ GTU advanced graphic touch screen is one of the new products in Schneider Electric’s “Leading the Era” series, featuring flexibility, integration, connectivity, and safety, with multiple performance designs leading the industry level. It adopts the industry’s leading multi-touch technology on the resistive screen, introducing consumer trends into industrial HMI (Human-Machine Interface), disrupting the complex traditional usage habits of HMI; the modular separation design supports multi-screen sharing, offering more flexibility and integrated functionality; it enables remote mobile control of devices, meeting the broad connectivity requirements under the trend of the Industrial Internet of Things.
· More Flexible Screen Display
Utilizing the new generation Vijeo XD software, users can operate and browse screens of any size through flexible multi-touch methods such as sliding, dragging, stretching, and zooming, just as conveniently and comfortably as using a Pad. The large-capacity screen content will no longer be limited by the size of the hardware screen. Meanwhile, the design of intelligent components allows different levels of information to be displayed when the screen is stretched and zoomed to different sizes, such as a panoramic view of the entire workflow and detailed views of specific operational segments, all visible at a glance on the screen.
· More Integrated Functionalities
GTU adopts a separated design with a front display module and a rear host module, with the host module available in HMI and iPC (industrial PC) designs, allowing users to flexibly match them for different applications. For models or production lines requiring multi-screen display, multiple display modules can share one host module, optimizing usage costs. For applications requiring special certification and production data management, such as food and beverage and pharmaceutical machinery, the industrial PC functional host module can directly store data on a local CFast storage card or upload it to a database, achieving integrated consolidation of HMI and industrial PC functionalities.
· Broader Connectivity and Remote Access
GTU features extensive connectivity and remote access capabilities. With up to 9 external interfaces, the front USB port allows direct connection of a WiFi module, making connectivity possible from a hardware configuration perspective. On the software side, GTU supports Schneider Electric’s Vijeo Designer Air APP, enabling users to monitor the GTU touch screen display remotely via network synchronization on a Pad or smartphone, facilitating remote diagnostics and debugging without personnel needing to rush to the industrial site, which is undoubtedly a great boon for solving application issues in remote, harsh industrial environments. Additionally, users can utilize the Webgate solution to monitor the GTU touch screen display through the IE browser on a PC; the on-site GTU touch screen can also access the upper computer database via the network, providing convenience for users to call upper computer data or documents on-site.
· Enhanced Security
Information security and equipment safety have largely constrained the healthy and efficient development of industries, making it essential to reduce various potential safety hazards from the source. GTU adopts a relatively isolated dual Ethernet port design, separating IT communication data flow from PLC communication data flow, ensuring that any level of failure will not cause the entire network to go down, thus achieving data security. On the other hand, as a high-end HMI, GTU has enhanced its own device safety by adopting a full metal shell packaging, with the front panel rated IP67 for protection, creating a sturdy and reliable screen; the electrically isolated RS485 serial port is suitable for a wide temperature range of 0°C – 60°C and has obtained corresponding international shipbuilding, explosion-proof, and other certifications.
· Convenient Maintenance
“The Icing on the Cake”
Of course, in modern industry, besides outstanding performance, convenient maintenance is an aspect that users value highly, as it can reduce unnecessary downtime and additional labor, material, and time costs. GTU uses SD cards and CFast cards as storage media for the host module, with a maximum data storage capacity expandable to 64G, plug-and-play. Even in the event of repairs or the need for upgrades, simply remove the existing program’s storage card and place it in the new host module to resume production. The Vijeo XD software offers various theme templates, allowing users to quickly and freely switch based on project styles. It also integrates a rich library of components, so users no longer need to search through a plethora of complex toolbars for the functions they need; simply right-click on the target object, and the expanded pie menu will display the relevant function keys, making it more user-friendly and approachable.
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