When Exloc was founded in 1996, its focus was on supplying intrinsically safe displays and indicators used to display critical process information from remote instrumentation, providing operators with full visibility of a plant. This technology paved the way to more complex, intrinsically safe human-machine interfaces (HMIs), providing a much richer user interface to the plant for effective process control. These systems had one major drawback, though: a lack of portability.
"We live in a world now where we have become used to having infinite amounts of information and data available at our fingertips, wherever we may be, through the evolution of smartphones and tablets," said Exloc President Hadrian Jones. "Why should we stop utilizing this technology at the gates of the process plant?"
Exloc's intrinsically safe mobile devices, including Enterprise-grade Windows tablet and ultra-rugged Android table and smartphone.
Thanks in large part to a series of remarkable technological breakthroughs that have brought on a digital mobility revolution Exloc now offers specially designed, intrinsically safe tablets and smartphones, which are being used in a wide range of applications, providing groundbreaking boosts to productivity and safety.
To provide the ultimate connected mobile worker solution for hazardous areas requires a robust wireless network available directly in the plant enabling device connectivity to the cloud or on-site servers, and Exloc has its clients covered on this front as well.
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Exloc's intrinsically safe Wi-Fi-based RFID tags and explosion-proof access point.
We supply a rugged, certified Wi-Fi access point solution," Jones said. "Our solution consists of an integrated enclosure system, which takes pretty much any nonhazardous area certified Wi-Fi access point and provides the necessary mechanical and intrinsically safe protection to allow for installation in a Class 1 Division 1 hazloc area."
This technology allows for the use of industry-leading, high-power, high-bandwidth 802.11ac access points in even the most extreme flammable locations, resulting in a powerful Wi-Fi network that seamlessly allows for mobile device connectivity, providing latency-free voice and video, as well as real-time synchronization of HMI or mobile inspection software.
Another key use case that drives the deployment of Exloc's Wi-Fi systems across process plants is personnel and asset tracking. The company supplies a solution consisting of intrinsically safe, hardened Wi-Fi beacon technology radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that utilize the Wi-Fi network infrastructure to provide real-time location system (RTLS) tracking. This system not only provides critical, accurate locations of your personnel in the event of a site emergency, but can also be used to proactively manage turnarounds more effectively.
"Some of our RTLS tracking customers have drastically cut the length of their planned turnarounds through the ability to much more effectively manage their resources," Jones said. "They have realized millions of dollars of cost savings from deploying this technology."
Exloc's corporate office is based in Montgomery, Texas, where its staff of experienced industry professionals provides direct support to clients in the Gulf Coast region and abroad.
For more information, visit www. exloc.com or call (281) 978-2040.
