Our manufacturing environment is very harsh. There’s lots of welding, sanding, and grinding. There are lots of chemicals and gases. And there are extreme temperatures. This is definitely not an environment conducive to computing. However, we do have several computers in the shop that operate in this nasty environment. The equipment is all covered in dirt and if you open up the computer, you can’t believe that it is still working. Needless to say, the computers in the shop are prone to frequent failure.
These computers run a single, very light, application that just writes some data to database on central server. We have a small stockpile of used computers loaded with the application that are just sitting waiting to be swapped out when one of the computers in the shop gives up the ghost. However, it’s a pain to load new machines and swap them out when the break.
Enter the HP Compaq t5135:
This is a solid state thin client. It’s 7-1/3 inches long and wide, and 2 inches thick. It weighs just 3 pounds. This is a solid state device whose only purpose is to connect to another computer on the network. We are piloting replacing all the full-blow PCs in the shop with these thin clients. They idea is the thin clients will use RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) to connect to a central computer where they will run the necessary software. This will be seamless to the user. It will still appear to them to be running locally.
Our thought is that with no moving parts (particularly the fan sucking in bad air) that they will last a lot longer. Plus, even if they do go bad, it’s literally a matter of unplugging the bad one and plugging a new one it.
We’re piloting this in one area to see how it goes. If it works, we’ll replace all the shop computers with thin clients. I’ll keep you posted.
Tags: Compaq, HP, manufacturing, RDP, thin client, welding
