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FeedsHome: April / May 2012 › Mitsubishi Electric – a proven ‘track record’
Mitsubishi Electric – a proven ‘track record’
20/04/2012 | Channel: Infrastructure, Rolling Stock, Business Improvement
CHRIS EVANS discusses Mitsubishi Electric’s rail pedigree and technology innovation
Mitsubishi Electric’s involvement in the UK-based rail industry started
back in the late 1980s when Mitsubishi Programmable Logic Controllers
(PLCs) were used as monitoring equipment and operator Interface systems
on a variety of signalling installations on the London Underground
network.
Mitsubishi Electric is renowned for manufacturing high quality automation and control solutions and has continued to supply equipment to the rail industry for mainline, underground and overground infrastructure projects over the last 30 years.
Mitsubishi’s technology is based on adopting open standards and providing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products both at a hardware, network, programming and data transfer level to give its customers total flexibility.
Another key factor is Mitsubishi’s ethos of ‘evolution’ rather than ‘revolution’ in product design, allowing legacy systems to be supported over many years and the migration of the old to the new in an easy and cost-effective way. This is vital when considering the asset lifetimes demanded by the rail industry.
Mitsubishi is a registered and approved supplier of these solutions to the UK rail industry.
Diverse UK and global applications
Within the London Underground, Mitsubishi has been involved in many diverse applications including the escalator & lift refurbishment programme, the Jubilee line extension, Victoria line, station and tunnel ventilation, pumps and drainage, platform edge doors obstruction detection and Central line and Bakerloo line signal monitoring refurbishment. Recent involvement included the ‘Cooling the Tube’ project and routing & timetable management for the Piccadilly line, Heathrow T5 and depot protection.
In the UK overground infrastructure, Mitsubishi has been involved with, amongst others, environment control and building management systems, waste extraction, remote condition monitoring, points heating, tunnel ventilation and train washing. Overseas installations have included, Oslo Railway, Hong Kong Railways, Jakarta Mainline Railways, Singapore MRT, Taiwan and of course Japan Railways.
These applications have used a variety of Mitsubishi solutions including PLCs, Variable Speed Drives, HMIs (Human Machine Interfaces) and SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition).
Innovation going forward
Recently some of Mitsubishi Electric’s innovative technology solutions have been used in applications where traditional automation technology had previously not ventured. Mitsubishi’s ‘C Controller’ platform offers a flexible, robust, secure environment that can house multiple ‘apps’ to perform complex and challenging tasks. The C Controller forms part of the integrated iQ Platform and therefore sits in a ruggedised non-PC-based environment.
On one level, the C Controller can offer a flexible C++ programming environment to extend the processing power of a standard PLC CPU, often held back by the constraints of traditional PLC programming languages. This has already been used on rail applications in this mode. However, it is the flexibility of the C Controller to take on a functional persona based on the “loaded app” which really makes this solution an exciting development and platform for the future.
As part of Mitsubishi’s e-Factory Alliance, partner companies have embedded their technology onto the C Controller platform enabling a whole host of Mitsubishi solutions to be developed, including a distributed secure database application and various connection options from asset to enterprise level, interfacing to SAP, Oracle, DB2 and other business systems solutions. A recent development has been an RTU product, complete with an open IEC 61131-1 programming environment and embedded IEC 61850 and DNP3 protocols.
It is also possible to develop industry standard applications in this environment which means that, going forward, Mitsubishi is well placed to work with and react to the needs of its customers. The company already has examples in the motor industry where the standard product was modified to interface with the company’s specific enterprise level solution. As the C Controller ‘apps’ are firmware/software based, modifications can easily be made and new systems engineered without the need for costly and lengthy product development.
Industry focus
The rail infrastructure sector remains a key focus area for Mitsubishi Electric, both in the UK and worldwide. The company will continue to build on a proven track record and sound industry knowledge and experience as it moves forward, whilst seeking to bring innovation and reliability through its products and solutions.
Mitsubishi Electric UK
Tel: 01707 288 780
Email: automation@meuk.mee.com
Web: www.automationsolutions.mitsubishielectric.co.uk
Mitsubishi Electric is renowned for manufacturing high quality automation and control solutions and has continued to supply equipment to the rail industry for mainline, underground and overground infrastructure projects over the last 30 years.
Mitsubishi’s technology is based on adopting open standards and providing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products both at a hardware, network, programming and data transfer level to give its customers total flexibility.
Another key factor is Mitsubishi’s ethos of ‘evolution’ rather than ‘revolution’ in product design, allowing legacy systems to be supported over many years and the migration of the old to the new in an easy and cost-effective way. This is vital when considering the asset lifetimes demanded by the rail industry.
Mitsubishi is a registered and approved supplier of these solutions to the UK rail industry.
Diverse UK and global applications
Within the London Underground, Mitsubishi has been involved in many diverse applications including the escalator & lift refurbishment programme, the Jubilee line extension, Victoria line, station and tunnel ventilation, pumps and drainage, platform edge doors obstruction detection and Central line and Bakerloo line signal monitoring refurbishment. Recent involvement included the ‘Cooling the Tube’ project and routing & timetable management for the Piccadilly line, Heathrow T5 and depot protection.
In the UK overground infrastructure, Mitsubishi has been involved with, amongst others, environment control and building management systems, waste extraction, remote condition monitoring, points heating, tunnel ventilation and train washing. Overseas installations have included, Oslo Railway, Hong Kong Railways, Jakarta Mainline Railways, Singapore MRT, Taiwan and of course Japan Railways.
These applications have used a variety of Mitsubishi solutions including PLCs, Variable Speed Drives, HMIs (Human Machine Interfaces) and SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition).
Innovation going forward
Recently some of Mitsubishi Electric’s innovative technology solutions have been used in applications where traditional automation technology had previously not ventured. Mitsubishi’s ‘C Controller’ platform offers a flexible, robust, secure environment that can house multiple ‘apps’ to perform complex and challenging tasks. The C Controller forms part of the integrated iQ Platform and therefore sits in a ruggedised non-PC-based environment.
On one level, the C Controller can offer a flexible C++ programming environment to extend the processing power of a standard PLC CPU, often held back by the constraints of traditional PLC programming languages. This has already been used on rail applications in this mode. However, it is the flexibility of the C Controller to take on a functional persona based on the “loaded app” which really makes this solution an exciting development and platform for the future.
As part of Mitsubishi’s e-Factory Alliance, partner companies have embedded their technology onto the C Controller platform enabling a whole host of Mitsubishi solutions to be developed, including a distributed secure database application and various connection options from asset to enterprise level, interfacing to SAP, Oracle, DB2 and other business systems solutions. A recent development has been an RTU product, complete with an open IEC 61131-1 programming environment and embedded IEC 61850 and DNP3 protocols.
It is also possible to develop industry standard applications in this environment which means that, going forward, Mitsubishi is well placed to work with and react to the needs of its customers. The company already has examples in the motor industry where the standard product was modified to interface with the company’s specific enterprise level solution. As the C Controller ‘apps’ are firmware/software based, modifications can easily be made and new systems engineered without the need for costly and lengthy product development.
Industry focus
The rail infrastructure sector remains a key focus area for Mitsubishi Electric, both in the UK and worldwide. The company will continue to build on a proven track record and sound industry knowledge and experience as it moves forward, whilst seeking to bring innovation and reliability through its products and solutions.
Mitsubishi Electric UK
Tel: 01707 288 780
Email: automation@meuk.mee.com
Web: www.automationsolutions.mitsubishielectric.co.uk
