Industrial Networks

Industrial Networks are subject to extreme temperatures and humidity, vibration, dust and dirt, EMI & RFI, corrosion, gases, shock, etc. GarrettCom provides a wide range of Industrial Ethernet products designed for use in the industrial environment.

THE LEADER IN INDUSTRIAL NETWORKS

Industrial Networks are typically built with switches, which automatically forward traffic from one point in a network to another. Using switch only industrial networks achieves a degree of determinism not present in older Ethernet systems. There are several key differentiators between a standard office grade switch and those made for industrial network applications:

1. Fibre Ports – use of fibre optic connections for Industrial Ethernet is commonplace. Fibre provides immunity from noisy electrical environments and allows cable runs up to 100km at 100Mbit/s.
2. Rugged design – there are industrial network environments where an office grade switch would fail within minutes. For these applications it is essential to have the vibration and shock-proofing inherent to most rugged switches.
3. Wide temperature range – for roadside, military, and other outdoor applications, systems have to be installed in environments with a widely varying temperature. A typical operating range of -40 to +75°C overcomes this problem.
4. Conformal coating – this protects the board from dirt and moisture ingress and can be especially useful in salt-water or dusty environments.
5. Industrial Approvals – Many vertical markets require hardware to have specific approvals such as IEC 61850 for substations, EN50155 for railways, NEMA TS2 for transportation, IEC60945 for marine environments.
6. Redundant topologies – this is the most persuasive argument for Industrial Ethernet. The ability to create rings of switches allows high reliability industrial networks to be built.

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