The problem

Two transfer presses at a plant had been causing a ruckus. At least once a quarter, the hardwired network suffered cable degradation, and each occurrence caused the entire operation to shut down for up to two hours. Something had to be done.

The two presses produced up to 1,800 parts per hour. The presses were hardwired and faced frequent downtime from cable breakage or damage, frustrating the team on the plant floor.

It cost Gestamp approximately $14,500 each time they had to replace the RG-6 coaxial cable, plus the value of the 1,500-2,400 parts that could not be produced during the outage. They’d see this process play out about every 2 to 3 months per press.

The Application

Each press consists of one ram, two dies, and two bolsters. The bolsters are mobile metal plates on which the dies are mounted. A die is used as a mold that defines the shape that the part will take. In this application each die is roughly the size of a one-ton pick-up truck.

During the process, a metal sheet is fed across one bolster and comes to a rest above the dies. The ram rises and drops with a force of 800 to 1,400 metric tons, sandwiching the metal sheet between itself and the die to stamp out the parts. While one of the bolsters stamps parts, the second is loaded.

The Challenge

The cable wasn’t as much the problem as the demands placed on it. The cable’s path ran along a corner that required it to achieve such a sharp angle that the cable inevitably wore in this area.

Nevertheless, the end user needed a more reliable network, but there was a question about whether a wireless system would be effective given that wireless points would need to be affixed in a partially obstructed location beneath the bolsters.

The Solution

The company spoke with the local Rockwell Automation® distributor, who recommended using six Frequency Hopping Ethernet radios from ProSoft Technology, along with the end user’s existing ControlLogix® PACs.

ProSoft Technology’s Strategic Product Manager for Wireless Technologies said, “When the direct path (line-of-sight) is obstructed, a signal will reflect off of other objects, taking an alternate path to the receiving radio. Because there are multiple reflections, the signals arrive at the receiving radio at different times, so the radio needs to be able to distinguish between the different signals. ProSoft Technology’s Frequency Hopping radios are able to work with reflected signals because of the narrow band ‘hops’ and changing frequencies, making them less impacted by multipath interference compared to higher-speed, wider-band technologies such as 802.11.”

The Wireless Network

Each press is automated by a dedicated ControlLogix. To replace the hardwired system, four FLEX™ I/O ControlNet™ communication adapters — one for each bolster — were replaced with EtherNet/IP™ adapters and an Ethernet radio. Each PAC was fitted with a second 1756-ENBT Ethernet card and an Ethernet radio.

Performance

“We’ve got a unique application here, involving large moving hunks of steel. Our initial concerns that the steel would impede the radio performance turned out to be unfounded. When the bolsters interfere with line-of-sight, the radios continuously try to read through the bolsters,” a representative for the end user said. 

This specific application shows that though the laws of physics cannot be changed, the obstacles they present can be circumvented when armed with the right technology: in this case, a high-quality industrial wireless solution. By using ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Frequency Hopping radios, the end user has been able to eliminate the downtime plaguing its facility, translating into a savings of up to $174,000 per year, plus the value of parts produced during that time. The wireless system has been live for a while now and the end user is still pleased with the performance of the radios. “In fact, the radios work better than expected. We’ve been very happy with them.”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions here. 

An overhead monorail system transports car body carriers around a loop that travels through the 100-meter-long paint-shop building.

At the paint-shop loading station at one end of the process line, car bodies are loaded onto these mobile carriers, lifted eight meters off the floor, and attached to an overhead monorail system. The carriers run above a process line with 14 sequential stations. At each station, the carriers stop to allow two on-board hoists to lower the car bodies into a chemical immersion bath. When the process is completed at one station, the hoists lift the car body and the carrier moves along the monorail to the next station in the chain, as soon as it's empty. After the last process station, the car bodies are unloaded from the carriers at the other side of the building, 120 meters from where they began.

The Problem – Obsolete Mobile Connectivity

Each mobile overhead carrier contains an on-board controller to operate the on-board hoists. A single, stationary master controller located near the loading station manages the carrier controllers. The master issues commands via a legacy serial protocol through a conductor rail system that connects it to the carrier controllers.
  
The protocol is slower than newer industrial protocols and is difficult to transmit wirelessly. The facility management recognized that to increase communication speed and bandwidth they would need to use a new protocol. And, the original network design did not require or include peer-to-peer communication between carrier controllers. They determined that adding peer-to-peer communication capability could also help increase production.

The sliding-contact conductor rail system that carried messages came with its own set of problems. The sliding-contact system required significant maintenance to operate at peak efficiency. But even at peak efficiency, when network bandwidth utilization approached maximum capacity, high transmission error rates plagued this hardware-based rubbing connector system. Low capacity and high error rates created another problem. Even though the paint-shop process line had 14 stations, the conductor rail system had enough bandwidth for data from only 13 carriers at a time, which was restricting paint-shop throughput.

The Goal – Increase Production Capacity with Minimal Modifications

Plant engineers wanted to retain the advantages of having mobile, on-board controllers for each carrier. They wanted to eliminate the communication bottleneck imposed by the older serial protocol. They wanted to eliminate the maintenance headaches and bandwidth limitations of the conductor rail network. They wanted to be able to use all 14 stations simultaneously, and add four to six new carriers to cope with increased production demands. So, they began rethinking their network strategy.

The Solution – Marrying Old and New Technologies

Working closely with an engineering service and local distributor, the company elected to migrate to the faster, more robust Ethernet communication network in order to increase their bandwidth capabilities. But, the processors mounted in the mobile carrier cabinets had no Ethernet ports. The manufacturer did not want to replace all the mobile PLCs with Ethernet-capable processors, so they installed a serial-to-Ethernet gateway in each controller cabinet. This enabled the stationary master processor to receive process data from the mobile processors via Ethernet. The existing legacy master PLC was replaced with a newer version, giving the master controller sufficient Ethernet connectivity bandwidth to handle the large volume of data from the mobile controllers.
  
The sliding contact network system was not well-suited for Ethernet communication and too unreliable and costly to maintain. Eliminating the outdated sliding contact system and replacing it with a modern wireless system seemed like an obvious and necessary choice. The mobile carriers and the stationary master controller could then communicate via Ethernet through a high-speed, high-volume wireless network solution. But wireless networks can have their own set of limitations. Radio waves reflect off metal objects and bounce in all directions, creating a potential problem known as radio multipath interference.
  
Engineers were doubtful wireless would be reliable for heavy industry, in an environment surrounded by moving metal. The paint shop has metal walls and a metal roof. The carriers are massive steel objects, as are the car bodies they carry. These constantly moving metal masses result in an ever-changing radio frequency environment, increasing opportunities for radio interference to interrupt or corrupt data flow. But ProSoft’s industrial radios use highly effective filtering algorithms and allow emitted power adjustment. Both of these features help overcome multipath interference problems. Plus, ProSoft Technology's expert advice regarding proper antenna selection and placement was a major factor contributing to the application's overall success.
  
“We saved at least 2-3 days of engineering work while designing the network,” remembers Mike Dean, the system integrator from DACs. “And of course, we saved on installation time, having less hardware to handle, manipulate, and install in the field. In fact, installation and validation of the network were very quick. When adopting a new technology, the learning curve typically runs through one or two projects. But, with [the radios] and with support from ProSoft Technology, our learning process was very short.”

The Results - DRAMATIC

Production capacity increased more than 53 percent.
  
The wireless radios provided all the speed and bandwidth engineers needed to achieve their design goals. Wireless networking brought the transmission speed and reliability that were missing with the old conductor-rail, sliding-contact system. The wireless solution was easy to implement and much easier to maintain, requiring less downtime. And the number of carriers that could simultaneously be in use in the paint-shop loop increased from 13 with the old network to 20 with the new network.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s wireless solutions here. 

The Application

In Chakan, Pune, India, a market-leading manufacturer of utility vehicles built a modern greenfield facility from the ground up with state-of-the-art equipment.

At the heart of the plant is the Electrified Monorail System (EMS) conveyor, designed to deliver reliable, safe, quiet, and efficient transportation of the vehicles from one work station to another along the assembly line. The EMS runs throughout the entire length of the Trim, Chassis and Final assembly (TCF) line of the vehicle in the general assembly shop. The light truck manufactured in this facility is transported by a wireless EMS conveyor. The TCF line is considered the final stage in production, where components are added to the vehicle, including “trim” components such as windshield glass and seats, and operational components such as the engine and wheels, before final vehicle testing.

Control and Communication Automation

For consulting, specifying and planning of this project, the manufacturer worked with Yantra Automation, one of the largest Rockwell Automation® distributors in India, in conjunction with their local Rockwell Automation account manager, and with the system integration company Precision Automation and Robotics India Limited (PARI). The team worked closely to develop the best overall solution for this sophisticated project.
  
This being a new system and a greenfield plant, they were not bound by constraints associated with some of the older monorail systems found in manufacturing plants. Thus, they were able to design a system that easily conformed to the goals of the project and the manufacturer’s commitment toward flexible and lean manufacturing. This entailed the following goals:

• To eliminate communication issues and concerns associated with rigid copper bus bars and brush collectors commonly used for communication with EMS carriers
• To optimize reliability and uptime of the EMS conveyor system
• To deliver real-time communication with Programmable Automation Controllers (PACs) and Input/Output (I/O) modules for enhanced conveyor control
• And ultimately, to achieve optimum response times for managing the EMS vehicle carriers

 
From Yantra Automation, Ajay Kulkarni and Manish Sahni began the challenge of designing a complex wireless communication system for the assembly manufacturing line - an ambitious goal in a large-scale project involving multiple carriers in continuous motion along the overhead Electric Monorail System. Together, the team selected a Rockwell Automation control solution supported by ProSoft Technology wireless Ethernet radios. The challenge: creating a seamless and reliable communication system between each carrier and the controller as they move throughout the plant.

Implementation

PARI was commissioned for the design and implementation of the specific assembly line. PARI is a turnkey integration company specializing in top-to-bottom conveyor system design, robotics, and controls and communication automation in the automotive industry in India.
  
PARI designed the full vehicle assembly line to operate in real time on the EtherNet/IP™ control network, using several Rockwell Automation ControlLogix® PACs and supporting peripherals on the shop floor, including I/O and Variable Frequency Drives. The decision to go with ProSoft Technology Industrial Hotspot radios was made primarily because of their industrial hardware and solid reputation for supporting Rockwell Automation controls and communication interfaces seamlessly, in addition to the ease of operation.
  
Movement of the EMS carriers for transporting vehicles through the different stages of assembly is handled over a wireless EtherNet/IP network. The control system consists of one ControlLogix PAC on the conveyor and one ControlLogix PAC on the engine decking system for body marriage. The conveyor PAC is hardwired to two ProSoft Technology master radios, while the engine decking PAC is hardwired to a third master radio. The conveyor PAC is wirelessly connected with 33 individual carriers along the EMS, while the engine decking PAC is connected wirelessly with 3 engine carriers. Each independent EMS carrier has a local control panel with Rockwell Automation I/O and a Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), and a ProSoft Technology access point acting as a repeater to establish wireless communication between the main control panel equipment and their respective PAC. The carrier radios communicate with each other, as well as with the master radios.
  
This EMS application is time-critical, so each repeater radio is connected with its parent master radio at all times to avoid switching delays as communications change from one master radio to another while the carriers are in motion. The master radio in each conveyor PAC has two Omni antennas with a splitter to deal with multipath fading effect. The architecture fully supports seamless roaming by the carriers.

Results

After some initial challenges with line-of-sight issues, which were resolved by adding another master radio and elevating their locations, the system is now able to provide real-time communication between the EMS carriers and the PACs on the assembly-plant floor, including real-time I/O status for conveyor movement control. The system also enables wireless synchronization between the floor-mounted engine trolleys and the overhead EMS carrier, for the smooth decking of the engine.
  
The flexible architecture permits independent operation of each vehicle carrier, enabling carriers to be programmed for different speeds based upon their location on the conveyor path. The conveyor speeds are seamlessly switched in the process zones, transit zones, straight and curve zones, manual speed zones, and slow-and-stop speed zones. Limit switches in the vertical elevators enable ramp-up and ramp-down velocities for elevation changes, ensuring the safety of the carriers on the line. Buffers in the conveyors can be adjusted based upon prevailing production pull systems.
  
By opting for this wireless network, the manufacturer was able to gain several benefits, including:

• The ability to control the EMS conveyor and the engine decking carrier in real time and synchronizing the VFDs with the engine decking carriers
• Elimination of complex wiring/cabling and cat tracks for communication cable
• Elimination of additional bus bars for communications with associated complex communications interfaces
• Seamless and robust communication between the PACs and the I/O
• Determinism with all the I/Os on each EMS carrier for better scan time management

What Happened Next

Since the project went live, the manufacturer has seen an increase in uptime, reliability and consistency in production output, enhancing their commitment toward lean manufacturing. 

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions  here.

What would you say is one of the most important pieces of equipment in an automobile assembly line plant--something that is tied to nearly every function in the production of a new car? 

Give up? It’s easy: the air compressors. When a worker puts on a tire or attaches the new seats, they use a pneumatic tool. These tools are run by...you guessed it...air pressure. So, it goes without saying that the air compressors in an auto assembly line plant would be of primary importance. 
 

Central Control for the Compressors 

There are a total of 8 Atlas Copco compressors in the Shanghai plant of a major automotive manufacturer. Six of these compressors are the ZH model, which is a centrifugal type, having an Allen-Bradley® SLC™ 5/03 embedded in their control systems. The remaining two compressors are the Z-pack model, equipped with built-in Modbus® communications. This created a problem in networking the compressors together, since the Allen-Bradley SLCs are not Modbus-compatible. The system integrator, Shanghai Yuandong Science & Technology, contacted Rockwell Automation and ProSoft Technology. They installed ProSoft’s Modbus communication solution into the SLCs onboard the ZH compressors, which then allowed all of the compressors to link to the HMI Host Station via the DH485 network.
 

“Normally every Atlas Copco compressor would be controlled individually,” said Chen Zong Liang, General Manager of Shanghai Yuandong. “With individual control, we found that some compressors would load, unload, and even stop running simultaneously. This made compressor output very inconsistent and therefore unstable. By using ProSoft’s module, we were able to directly connect Allen-Bradley’s SLC with Atlas Copco’s compressors using the Modbus protocol. With central control, it was possible to stagger the actions (start, load, unload or stop) of every compressor according to the charge situation.”
 

“Enabling the compressors with central control was easy to implement and created a smooth-running operation,” said the ProSoft Regional Sales Manager who worked on the application. “Not only did it help increase production, it created a cost savings in terms of electricity and maintenance costs. All of this translates into higher profits.”
 

When asked how the ProSoft module improved the plant processes, i.e. functionality, speed, convenience, or financial benefits, Liang simply replied, “It just can’t work without it!”
 

Modbus Interface
 
 

“With these Modbus communication interfaces, manufacturers are making a great deal of data available to the processor that can enhance the system control,” said ProSoft founder Doug Sharratt at the time of the application. “The Modbus module, when configured as a Master, is able to read and write to these devices, allowing the SLC ladder program direct access to the device’s data.”
 

In the past, many communication systems were closed. Since the Modbus protocol is open it has become an industry standard for many industrial devices available today. 
 

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Modbus solutions here.

Crane maintenance – Simplified

Sleek and luxurious are two words that could be used to describe the 2013 SUV KIA Sportage. The KIA cee’d, on the other hand, could be best described as sporty yet economical, with diesel models achieving more than 60 MPG (less than 4 liters/100km) in fuel economy.

But before these new shiny, sparkling automobiles show up on your auto dealer’s showroom floor, the cars, like any car out there on the road, have gone through a series of processes at their factories of origin.

The KIA Motors plant in Slovakia, which produces the cee’d, KIA Venga, and Sportage, decided to install industrial wireless solutions at its automobile stamping and press operations to further improve safety at the plant for employees. Cranes transfer stamping dies to the main press lines. Here is where parts such as doors, fenders, and hoods are produced.

“It was necessary to connect the overhead cranes to one network to be able to access the PLC from any maintenance computer in the Auto Press shop,” said Tomas Potocar, Engineer with KIA Motors.  

The purpose of the project was to communicate from the maintenance room to the facility’s Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® systems.

Before the plant chose ProSoft Technology’s 802.11n industrial radios, maintenance on the overhead cranes was a tedious process. 

“The overhead cranes were separate devices without any connection to computers used by the maintenance department,” Potocar said.

Because of this, engineers had to climb up 14 meters of stairs or a ladder to access the crane controller to connect it directly to a processor for diagnostics.

“Only if the crane is in ‘home’ position near the step, then the maintenance guy could get to its cabinet in 10 minutes. Now it’s possible to get access from the maintenance room immediately,” said Josef Nekvinda, an engineer with Rockwell Automation.

Cranes now can be accessed from the maintenance computer at any stage with the ProSoft Technology wireless solution. This results in much less downtime. 

With ProSoft Technology’s wireless solution, one 802.11n radio is on each of the 5 cranes, with an additional radio in the maintenance room.

Potocar and his team were at Automation University in Podbanske, Slovakia, where they heard a ProSoft Technology presentation.

“Shortly after hearing this presentation, a discussion about KIA Motors’ needs had started,” Potocar said. In choosing ProSoft Technology wireless solutions, KIA Motors wanted to ensure there was a constant, reliable connection between the PLC and the maintenance computer antenna.

“I had already received all necessary information, and I found that ProSoft Technology knew the tools we needed,” Potocar said. “Installation was rather simple.”

Implementing a wireless solution took much less time to commission than a possible wired solution.

KIA Motors is satisfied with the solution. “It helps us diagnose overhead cranes and monitor signals during the production from a safe position.”

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Wireless Solutions  here.

We’ve all seen car crashes. Most of us have had one or two in our lifetime. But imagine a car crash where neither car has a steering wheel, or wheels of any sort. Hard to picture? Not if you were watching an assembly line in an automobile manufacturing plant. Needless to say, having cars crash before they have been completely assembled is not good for the bottom line.

That was the problem Autos y Máquinas del Ecuador S.A (AYMESA) was experiencing in its manufacturing plant in Ecuador, where vehicles from major manufacturers are assembled.

AYMESA needed to improve the Electrified Monorail System (EMS) in its paint shop, specifically at the cataphoresis process called ELPO.

Cathodic electrodeposition, or cataphoresis, is a fully automated process of painting by immersion, which is based on the movement of charged particles in an electric field (paint) toward an oppositely charged pole (metallic surface to be painted). The equipment that gives the electric charge at the cataphoresis process is called a rectifier.

Before the paint is applied, the surfaces undergo a preparatory process that includes degreasing, phosphating, and several rinses. The main objective of the preparatory process and phosphate coating is to protect the surfaces from corrosion. This technique also allows areas that are hard to reach, such as recessed areas, and piping to be painted.  

After the paint has been applied, the surfaces are heated to dry and cure it.

The EMS transports car-body carriers around a loop that travels through the 140-meter-long paint shop. At the paint shop loading station, a car body is loaded onto a mobile carrier, lifted 5 meters off the floor, and attached to the EMS. The car body is then run through 12 stations. At every immersion station, the carriers stop to allow two on-board hoists to lower the car bodies into an immersion bath. When the process is completed at one station, the hoists lift the car body and the carrier moves along the monorail to the next station.

Every mobile carrier contains an on-board MicroLogix™ controller and three Variable Frequency Drives to operate the two hoists and two friction wheel travel drives. There is a stationary Master CompactLogix™ L35E controller near the first loading station sending commands through a conductor rail system.

“This conductor rail system became very dangerous when the electrical conductors broke, causing collisions between mobile carriers and unscheduled downtime,” said Pablo Padilla, ELPO Maintenance Supervisor for AYMESA.

“Also, because we couldn’t change the specific voltage in the cataphoresis process for different car models, it caused the smaller car models to have a thick coat of paint,” Mr. Padilla said. “This required extra time to sand down to keep our quality parameters.”

Mr. Padilla and his boss, AYMESA Maintenance Manager Luis Olivo, heard about ProSoft Technology radios at a Rockwell Automation® conference in Ecuador.

“We knew ProSoft had a solid reputation for supporting Rockwell controls and communication interfaces seamlessly,” Mr. Olivo said.

“We wanted to take advantage of the fact that we had mobile, on-board controllers for each carrier and to permit communication via Ethernet through a high-speed wireless network,” Mr. Padilla said.

However, the engineers had their doubts about the reliability of wireless networks in an environment surrounded by moving metal, since radio waves reflect off metal objects and bounce in all directions, causing multipath interference. The paint shop has metal walls and a metal roof. The carriers are massive steel objects, as are the car bodies they carry. All these constantly moving metal masses result in an ever-changing radio frequency environment that is ripe for radio interference or corrupt data flow.

“ProSoft Technology’s Fast Roaming radios use highly effective filtering algorithms and allow emitted power adjustment,” Mr. Padilla said. “Both of these features help overcome multipath interference problems. Plus, ProSoft’s expert advice regarding proper antenna selection and placement was a major factor contributing to the application’s overall success.”

The new control system consists of one Master radio connected to the Ethernet network in which the main PLC is a part. Every independent EMS carrier has a local controller and a ProSoft radio acting as a repeater to establish wireless communication with the main controller. The six mobile carriers communicate with each other as well as with the Master radio.

“Since this EMS application is time-critical, every repeater radio is connected with its parent Master radio at all times to avoid switching delays from one Master radio to another while the carriers are in motion,” Mr. Padilla said.

By opting for this wireless network, AYMESA was able to gain several benefits:

1. The implementation of a vision system consisting of a camera to identify the car model entering the paint shop. This, in conjunction with a new recipe system to set the immersion heights and the water spray times according to the car model, reduced processing time and optimized water consumption. Total processing time per mobile carrier was reduced by three minutes (6 percent).
2. The ability to send time and voltage data to the rectifier through the wireless network. Now, the rectifier gives a specific electric charge to each car model, eliminating over-painting on the smaller models.
3. The ability to control the EMS system in real-time, increasing its reliability and reducing downtime.
4. The ability to implement remote control through a wireless keypad with a range of 100 meters to manually control each mobile carrier.
5. Display of alarms of every mobile carrier at the PanelView™ in the control room.
6. And, best of all, collisions between mobile carriers were reduced by 100 percent, since with the wireless network, every carrier knows its position in relation to each other.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Wireless Solutions here.

now has a whole new meaning…

This car is so good, it’s not allowed to enter Australian car shows anymore.

Lowered with bright purple paint on the outside and a bright red interior, you can tell this isn’t the semi-ordinary 1986 Ford XF Falcon it once was. It’s a muscle car in every sense of the term, and then some. In just one car show “The Psycho” won Top Paint, Top Undercarriage, Top Engine Bay, Top Interior, Top Coupe, Top Five, Top Street Machine, and Australia’s Coolest Ride. It is considered the Top Show Car in Australia today.

But how many muscle cars do you know of that have industrial automation power?

Not many.

Underneath the hood of this baby isn’t just a powerful engine, but a PLC talking to different components of the car via a ProSoft Technology industrial radio.  

PLCs come to mind when talking about automobiles moving down large-scale automotive assembly lines that piece each part of the car together from start to finish. Controlling functions on the car itself is a different story. Since when does a PLC do that?

Since Greg Maskell in Australia integrated them in one of his custom cars. That’s when.  

The phrase “remote controlled car” now has a whole new meaning. Yes, we all have seen cars with the standard remote-start function these days. But remote controlling virtually every other function of the car, from the hood to the trunk and suspension? That’s where a PLC and a Prosoft Technology industrial wireless hotspot come in.

Maskell produces about two to three custom cars a year. “This is the first [PLC] that we have used in a car,” Maskell said.

What would have taken 18 toggle switches to remotely control functions of the car can be done with a few pieces of industrial automation equipment. How’s that for taking home all the car show trophies?

Maskell, of Maskell’s Customs & Classics in Australia, asked Gary Lomer to build a system for a custom car based on his industrial automation knowledge. 

“I used my industrial background to select components that were proven with solid and reliable software and hardware,” Lomer said. 

In this particular car, high-tension coil packs of the ignition are under the dash, as is a Rockwell Automation® MicroLogix™ PLC and a ProSoft Technology Industrial Hotspot.

Each is connected to a PanelView™ Plus through a Hirschmann switch. The HMI functions as the car’s touchscreen. 

Maskell links the car to a PanelView 1000 with two ProSoft Technology radios and can operate the whole car from the remote touch screen. Hood, or bonnet, up, sure. Boot, or trunk, up, no problem. Radio on, sure. Suspension up or down, you got it.

Maskell said they are very happy with the performance of the equipment in the car.

“[The PLC] controls all the electrical systems including start up, shut down, fuel pump, thermo fans, water pump, windscreen wipers, windows, and the radio,” he said.

In addition, the car features a suspension system that can be adjusted through air pressure controlled via the ProSoft hotspot. Also, the car’s doors, bonnet, and boot are controlled via electric actuators through the ProSoft system.

Maskell plans on using the PLC/ProSoft industrial wireless car control system more often when a customer decides they want to control their car remotely, he said.

The Psycho took 10,000 man-hours to build. Its owners are from Hobart, Tasmania, on the southern tip of Australia.

Learn more about ProSoft Technology’s Industrial Wireless Solutions here.