Moxa, a manufacturer of communications equipment for harsh environments, has unveiled the new flagship of Moxa's panel PC product line, the EXPC-1519.
The panel PC is an powerful and reliable unit equipped with the critical features and certifications required for Class 1, Div. 2; ATEX Zone 2, and IECEx rated hazardous environments. It will be available for ordering in August 2015.
Moxa says the EXPC-1519 includes many industry firsts for an industrial PC, such as the widest temperature range (-40° to 70°C) for a fanless cooling system absent of any moving parts, and the integration of third generation dual core Intel i7 processors with up to 16 B of memory to deliver blazing fast processing on par with desktop PCs. Its performance is further enhanced by a more flexible I/O arrangement to simplify field installations of any kind in open air hazardous area environments, along with Moxa's first ‘glove-friendly’ touch interface for the unit's glare-free, 1000 nits 19-in LED screen. Put together, these features make the Moxa EXPC-1519 a suitable platform for system control, operation, and monitoring in harsh, hot outdoor oil and gas fields and drilling platforms.
"For oil and gas operations, it can be extremely difficult and costly to realize the benefits of modern computing and communications technology, with overheating, dead pixels, and poor system performance being common complaints," explained Thomas Nuth, Moxa's Global Vertical Manager for Oil and Gas. "Our newest panel PC, the EXPC-1519, delivers the very latest PC-based technology to hazardous area applications with no compromise in power, reliability, space or feature set."
The EXPC-1519 is housed in a sealed IP66, NEMA 4X enclosure designed for efficient heat dissipation, as well as to extend service life by preventing ingress of damaging dust, water, chemicals or adverse weather. This all-in-one solution is in stark contrast to traditional protection options for panel PCs such as after-market re-engineering, or enclosing the unit in a third-party housing or cabinet that introduces additional space and power requirements, as well as points of failure.