A Human Machine Interface (HMI) is exactly what the name implies; a graphical interface that allows humans and machines to interact. Similar to how you would interact with your air-conditioning system to check and control the temperature in your house, a plant-floor operator might use an HMI to check and control the temperature of an industrial water tank, or to see if a certain pump in the facility is currently running.

The convenience that comes with a portable HMI is very valuable. HMI combines all the control features that are typically found throughout the automation line and places them in one centralized location, eliminating the need to run to a red pushbutton that will stop your line in an emergency. Not only does it provide convenience, but with remote access, the operator does not need to be anywhere near the automation line to start/stop or monitor production.

HMIs come in a variety of forms, from built-in screens on machines, to computer monitors, to tablets, but regardless of their format or which term you use to refer to them, their purpose is to provide insight into mechanical performance and progress.

In industrial settings, HMIs can be used to:

On the factory floor, HMIs provide valuable data enabling operators to optimize efficiency, such as reallocating staff to compensate for slow production in another area or fine-tuning machine settings to correct performance issues.

Human-machine interfaces are used for myriad applications across manufacturing, automotive, processing, and other industries, such as:

Most people already use HMIs regularly in everyday life, although they may not realize that when they program their microwave or adjust the temperature controls in their vehicles, they’re engaging a human-machine interface to interact with what they want the result to be. In industrial applications, HMIs are often more robust, more complex interfaces capable of handling the volume and complexity of inputs and outputs necessary to operate industrial machinery or plant-wide operations.

Who Uses HMI?

HMI technology is used by almost all industrial organizations of all sizes, as well as a wide range of different companies.

Examples of Industries using HMI include:

Additional Info:

Atvise is the only pure web based HMI technology available today. The advantage for clients means HMI’s can be viewed on any device, whether mobile, desktop or tablet, and all that is required is a web browser.

This means no time consuming client installation setup is required, the benefits of which are no licensing costs for each client and easy distribution of HMI systems across a plant or site.

Because atvise uses web based technology, development time is reduced drastically. This is due to the objected orientated drag and drop development environment which allows for visualisations to be created and deployed rapidly.

Atvise also takes advantage of SVG graphics which allows for better visual effects, loss free scaling for all resolutions and high performance. (1,5x faster than similar proprietary systems)

Developers can also create dynamic visualisations with atvise, because animations and rich graphics can easily be included into any visualisations, which offers a more realistic representation of how a process can be achieved.

Historians are normally a significant additional expense when purchasing a HMI solution, but this is not the case with atvise.
A historian comes included with atvise and will allow storage for an unlimited number of tags at a resolution of 0.25 seconds, aggregate storage is also possible.

Conclusion

To learn more about how HMIs can benefit your business, contact us by clicking on the button below: