Industrial workers can now more efficiently manage plant-floor devices and protect against costly downtime with the updated FactoryTalk AssetCentre software from Rockwell Automation. The latest software release helps workers more easily manage device firmware and expands disaster-recovery support to several new devices. Keeping up with device firmware updates is an important yet time-consuming process. With the software’s updated asset firmware reporting, workers can now quickly access in one place the most current firmware releases for their assets. They can also see product safety advisories, release notes and product notices all from a centralized location.
These enhancements add to the software’s existing abilities to report device firmware, product lifecycle states, discontinuation dates and availability of replacement products. This can save workers considerable time by not having to physically connect to control cabinets and manually record firmware information for production assets. The updated FactoryTalk AssetCentre software also now provides disaster-recovery support to more Rockwell Automation devices. These include the Allen-Bradley Stratix 5800 managed switches, E300 Electronic Overload Relays and PowerFlex 755T drives, as well as new CompactLogix and ControlLogix process controllers.
In addition, expanded integration between the AssetCentre software and ThinManager thin client software allows companies to limit user access to specific files. This can simplify tasks for workers and protect them from making mistakes, like accidental firmware updates to the wrong devices. Users will also see benefits when they use the updated AssetCentre software with the latest release of Studio 5000 software. For example, the auto-generated diagnostics now available in the Studio 5000 Logix Designer software can be collected and logged in the AssetCentre software for preservation, searching and reporting purposes.