Overview
dhPlus is affordable conveyor and warehouse control for small to medium size systems. It can be used for a wide range of conveyor applications and can utilize many field devices including barcode scanners, weigh scales and P&A (Print and Apply) units.
dhPlus can also communicate with host systems such as SAP for intelligent package routing and tracking through the warehouse or plant.
Pricing
Turnkey pricing for dhPlus deployments range from about $30K to $900K. It is more cost effective than all of the large system integrators and many of the smaller ones.
What's included
The best way to think about dhPlus is as a customizable hardware and software product that will control a customer's conveyor system. It has three main options -- Flex, Standard and Enterprise. Flex has a more distributed configuration while Standard and Enterprise have traditional control panels. See the Feature Matrix below.
dhPlus typically ships with the following:
- One or more traditional control panels (or Flex control pedestals) with high capability PLCs (Programmable Logic Controller) and motor controls such as starters and VFDs (Variable Frequency Drives) which are used to control the conveyors.
- One or more HMIs (Human Machine Interface) mounted on the control panel door or on a separate pedestal. The HMIs are used to control and monitor the conveyor system.
- Field devices such as photo eyes, E-stop pull cords, pushbutton stations, air pressure sensors and motor disconnect switches.
Optional equipment that can be shipped with dhPlus include a Windows PC workstation (Enterprise option), fixed barcode camera stations, P&A units, and a maintenance support laptop. See simplified architecture diagram below.
Features
The feature matrix below outlines all of the main hardware and software features. Specifically, the Enterprise option requires a PC server running Windows or a customer supplied VM (Virtual Machine).
Additional hardware and customized software can be added to perfectly fit a customer's functional requirements.
| Feature | HW/SW | Standard | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Control panel (traditional 1 or 2 door). Can have multiple panels per system. | HW | X | X |
| HMI mounted on panel door | HW | X | X |
| HMI mounted on full height console pedestal | HW | X | X |
| WCS capable PLC (Automation Direct) | HW | X | X |
| Allen Bradley CompactLogix PLC (Note: Windows server required for Host interface) | HW | X | |
| Fixed speed motor control | HW | X | X |
| Variable speed motor control (i.e. VFD) | HW | X | X |
| MDR interface using PLC I/O or network communications | HW | X | X |
| Safety circuit (E-stop buttons and pull cords) | HW | X | X |
| Photo eyes (for sensing the carton or pallet) | HW | X | X |
| Motor disconnect switches (mounted near conveyor) | HW | X | X |
| Barcode scanning cameras (Cognex or Keyence) | HW | X | X |
| OCR (Optical Character Recognition) cameras (Cognex) | HW | X | X |
| Print and Apply applicators (Panther) | HW | X | X |
| Main conveyor control logic | SW | X | X |
| Pick module carton routing logic | SW | X | X |
| High speed sortation logic | SW | X | X |
| MDR accumulation and sortation logic (Itoh Denki or PulseRoller) | SW | X | X |
| P&A (Print and Apply) interface logic | SW | X | X |
| Weigh scale interface logic | SW | X | X |
| Host interface (FTP protocol) | SW | X | X |
| Host interface (Custom socket protocols -- TCP or UDP) | SW | X | X |
| Host interface (MQTT protocol) (Note: MQTT broker required) | SW | X | X |
| Host interface (Industrial ModbusTCP or Ethernet/IP protocols) | SW | X | X |
| HMI standard screens for control, configuration and monitoring | SW | Basic | Enhanced |
| HMI conveyor graphics | SW | Basic | Enhanced |
| HMI dashboard | SW | Basic | Enhanced |
| HMI event logging | SW | Basic | Enhanced |
| HMI alarming | SW | Basic | Enhanced |
| Email notifications | SW | Basic | Enhanced |
| SMS notifications | SW | Basic | Enhanced |
| Customer support laptop with all software preloaded | HW/SW | X | X |
| Mobile device support for Android | SW | Remote Control | Full Client |
| Mobile device support for iOS | SW | Remote Control | Full Client |
| Security | SW | Passcode | Windows |
| SQL database | SW | X | |
| Host interface (database table sharing) | SW | X | |
| WCS server redundancy (hot failover) | SW | X |
Ready for a quote?
Please reach out to David at david@denharing.net or call 678-608-3356 when you're ready for a budgetary or firm quote for your specific application.
