Phoenixville, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/02/2010 -- Wynndel staff has found the INGEAR product line to be very useful but its flexibility has shown that it has many uses that were not anticipated. Googling the phrase “.NET PLC driver” lead Mike Sluz, Electrical Superintendant for Wynndel Box & Lumber to www.ingeardrivers.com.

According to Sluz, “Our Company, Wynndel Box & Lumber a specialty wood product manufacturer, faced the original challenge of displaying real time error messages and production data at various workstations around our plant. Realizing, through a bit of research, that we could use the INGEAR products to help gather data from numerous Allen Bradley PLC’s in our plant, we created various programs that use the INGEAR.ABLink.Net, INGEAR.Net.LogixCF, and INGEAR.Net.Logix. INGEAR was used to replace the need to purchase and install multiple RSLinx licenses at greater than $1100.00 per workstation.”

Wynndel found that after using the INGEAR products to create real time error message and production displays on operator workstations (as well supervisory workstations) they also found other uses for the INGEAR product. “We use of a wireless handheld iPaq 110 to remotely gather data for real time quality control checks from any location on our plant site. Next we intend to build another wireless handheld to alert maintenance personal about problems or potential problems by displaying machine center errors and data, such as temperature, vibration, tank levels, voltage monitor, and current levels. With INGEAR products we can write programs to utilize any information or modify data from any PLC,” enthused Sluz.

The INGEAR.NET software from CimQuest is a set of runtime free class libraries that simplify building, developing, and deploying connected systems for manufacturing applications using Visual Basic or Visual Studio .NET. It uses only three primary classes of .NET code:

- one of which manages the PLC,
- one manages the data that are read from or written to that PLC,
- one manages groupings of methods, properties, and events to optimize read/write operations on a collection.

It includes a direct Ethernet communication channel to the PLCs enabling developers to write HMI interfaces to PLC controls or acquiring data from them. No additional third-party components, drivers, APIs or tools, such as OPC Servers, are required. This simple programming model by CimQuest InGear contributes to faster response times and ease of use and ultimately – profitability.

CimQuest INGEAR
http://www.ingeardrivers.com
Chuck Karwoski
plc.net@ingeardrivers.com
Toll Free: 1.866.935.7979 | Telephone: 1.610.935.8282