Industrial PC Recommendations?

Up until now, all of our controls packages have been exclusively PLC and 95% Allen Bradley SLC & Micrologix systems.

We are currently quoting on a job requiring some gauging software to run on a Windows NT (Assuming XP will work?... have to check) PC. I have no experience w/ industrial PC's nor a feel for pricing to know if I am paying just for a name or real industrial hardened components and hardware.

For ease of installation we will probably want a flat panel display and the software can run with or without a mouse so a ruggedized mouse is ok but not mandatory.

Any suggestions for models to look at or stay away from as well as general price expectation would be appreciated.

Thanks

One the most reliable ways I've seen is to mount an every day run of the mill computer inside a cabinet. The monitor being mounted behind perspex. The keyboard is a cheap every day type with a waterproof membrane over it. The only problem is the mouse which does not like getting wet. In eight years the monitor as been changed twice, the tower upgraded once and the keyboard, since fitting the membrane type never in the last 18 months.

Indusrial PC options are pretty good lately. A few brands to investigate are Advantech, EXOR, CyberResearch, and Nematron.

Where you use it ?
In PaperMills, machine workshop etc. where are not wet and dust you can Use normal deskTop computers (You know it better).
Dust can go to keyboard but they are very cheap things for dayly replaced and usuabilyty is good.

I have had good luck with Advantech PCs so far. The ones I have been using are the PPC-133. They have a 15" color display with a touch screen. On a previous project some one used a desktop PC placed in a cabinet with a touch pad (mouse) and a keyboard all available to the operators. As soon as one of them figured out that they could do the ol' 3 finger salute (Ctrl+Alt+Delete) and get back to Windows from the runtime engine we had nothing but trouble. banghead

hardened...

The only things that really seperates industrial PCs and PCs are most iPCs try to use a flash ram hard drive (no moving parts). Also, some will have nema ratings on the case. Unless your enviroment has excessive vibrations or is particularly dirty, a run of the mill PC is a cabinet should work great. And since most PCs are about 1/10th the cost of an iPC, they are well worth the cost. Or if you want the no moving parts thing, just get a PC, under clock it significantly, and get a flash ram drive.