HARTING MICA 2 mini computer expands the company’s computing abilities

The HARTING MICA 2 mini computer

Among the many groundbreaking industrial products in the HARTING Canada portfolio is the MICA (Modular Industry Computing Architecture) product family. This is an industry standard for numerous application challenges. In 2018, the company launched the MICA 2 mini computer, which provides significantly more computing power than did any previous MICA solution.

The MICA 2 is a universal modular platform for capturing information, processing it at the machine level, and exchanging it in wire or wireless ways.

Communication with no cabling

This mini computer extends the company’s computing abilities to new areas, giving users three to five times the computing power that the MICA Basic provided for demanding data acquisition and processing. One can conduct data acquisition and communication with no cabling with the MICA Wireless with 2G/3G/4G, 802.11a/b/g/n and Glonass. The MICA Energy enables reading, compression, and transfer of information from current meters and transformers to MES, ERP, and Cloud systems.

The user can also perform analysis and visualization directly on the MICA by integrating the OpenSource time-series database InfluxDB and the dashboard software Grafana. HARTING offers MICA kits that original equipment manufacturers, customers, and third-party developers can equip with customer-specific function boards.

Sensor and data fusion with the MICA 2 boosts the operational value of this mini computer, particularly in the production of circuit boards and other manufacturing and quality-control processes. An example is combining RFID tags on circuit boards with energy, compressed air, and optical sensors in order to monitor a production line, correlate production steps with energy consumption at any time, and collect and pre-process information for preventative maintenance.

As determined by initial trial runs by the HARTING crew, a telling benefit of the MICA 2 is the ease of adding other key indicators, or KPIs, through the planned applications. These KPIs can include machine running times or asset management of tools with the modular MICA architecture.

As usual, HARTING is always the name to trust for the latest advances in technology. With the MICA 2, businesses have another fast and easy solution for implementing digitization projects directly at machines and facilities.

For more information, contact HARTING.

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