Hope Industrial recently attended our first show in the United Kingdom: MACH 2012 in Birmingham, presented by the Manufacturing Technologies Association. This was an excellent introduction to the UK market for our new Hope Industrial UK operations.
In this final week of December, like most people we at Hope Industrial have been reflecting on the past year. 2011 has been a wonderful year for us with solid growth, many new products released, and several milestones passed. We are extremely thankful for all of our new customers, and also indebted to the many companies who have standardized on our products over the years.
Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is wrapping up today and this has been a good show for us. The sheer size of this expo has to be seen to be believed. There are multiple buildings and even booths set up in the breezeways between buildings.
As of March 24th, Hope Industrial Systems is represented on all 7 continents! We sold our touchscreens to our first Antarctica-based customer on Thursday.
We are wrapping up our trip to Orlando, FL for the 2011 Automation Technology South Expo (ATX South). The weather has been great, as you would expect central Florida to be in March.
Hope Industrial Systems enjoyed another successful International Poultry Expo last week. We’ve attended this show for several years now and we’re always pleased with the quality of our leads, as well as the opportunity to meet several of our customers face-to-face. It also helps that we are located only 25 miles from the Georgia World Congress Center.
We just got back from the International Poultry Expo (IPE) that went on right here in Atlanta. There were a lot of great booths at the show, but it was especially exciting to visit those that had our monitors displayed.
Hope Industrial Systems is now shipping Hazloc-rated models of our 17″ and 19″ industrial monitors and touch screens. Our Panel Mount and Universal Mount displays (including our keyboards and KVM extenders) have been certified by UL for Class I, II, and III, Division 2 locations. These displays are also certified by UL for Type 12/4/4X environments, carry a UL508 safety rating, and are backed up by our industry-leading standard 5-year warranty.
Hope Industrial Systems is pleased to announce that all 15″, 17″, and 19″ models of our Panel Mount and Universal Mount monitors and touch screens have been tested and certified by Underwriters Laboratories to meet the demanding requirements of UL 50E. The UL 50E Type ratings are equivalent to what is more commonly referred to in our industry as NEMA standards (e.g. NEMA 12, NEMA 4, and NEMA 4X). While most suppliers “self-certify” to NEMA standards, we have chosen to engage UL for official confirmation for our 15″, 17″, and 19″ monitors, assuring our customers that an independent testing agency has completely tested those designs.
PC-based HMI has become increasingly common in the Industrial Automation market. We at Hope Industrial Systems believe that in most cases, it is not necessary to place a fully-ruggedized PC directly on the factory floor. These systems are generally vastly more expensive and more difficult to maintain than comparable office-grade computers and servers.