Delta Industrial Automation's Solution Business Group successfully partnered with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of aquatic therapy pools to provide an industrial grade solution to meet diversely changing needs. The result became an improvement on their existing product offering not only to include new features to meet the requirements of today, but also included platform & architecture expandability to make it future proof.
The OEM's existing pool controls reliability are extremely important, as the functionality of the system must not have downtime longer than 48 hours due to the nature of the applications use case.
Other OEM obstacles included:
• High maintenance cost due to decentralized and outsourced engineering, not key manufacturer of key components
• Limited support as the design was a proprietary control system creating a only a single source of service
• Continued costs due to licensing fees for software use and charges for firmware updates
• Non-industrial solution used in a corrosive environment
• Lack of remote connectivity for maintenance or control
The existing system contained 6 motors/pumps that control speed and elevation of the equipment from a desktop computer and a physically wired pushbutton station with an infrared remote control. Delta’s solution consisted of Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) to handle the different motors/pumps while the computer is replaced with an instrial HMI that allows for a more corrosive environment. Deltas W-series HMI allows for the remote connection via VNC for maintenance and control from a tablet or phone as well as the capability to broadcast to a 3rd party device.