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Fanless PC for Fuel Stations
Situation
A pioneer in the fuel management business, Warren Rogers Associates (WRA) designs and develops end-to-end fuel profitability solutions for a wide array of major oil and truck stop clients. The company works with high-traffic fuel stations across the country to control fuel theft, monitor usage, identify leaks, and determine when meters go out of calibration. WRA products and technical support services have been specially designed to minimize the manpower and monetary requirements of compliance to guidelines for storage tank owners. To provide these services, WRA runs its proprietary software on industrial computers placed inside the store rooms of each station. This software allows the company to perform statistical analyses at each station to determine whether any areas need attention.
Back in 2009, the company began experiencing issues with the industrial computers being used in the store rooms. These units were equipped with fans for cooling, but due to the harsh environments the devices were exposed to, their fans kept becoming clogged. This caused the computers to overheat and fail. Unable to rely on its old industrial computers, WRA started looking for a new vendor. After finding CCS-Inc. in an initial search, representatives from WRA contacted CCS for more information.
Solution
In response to WRA’s request, CCS provided WRA with information on the company’s background and capabilities. Impressed by what they heard, WRA decided to meet with the CCS team to discuss the project’s parameters. Due to the limited amount of space available in fuel station store rooms, the replacement device needed to be as compact as possible. In addition to the space constraint, WRA was looking for a rugged computer that could function in extremely harsh conditions. These requirements were put in place to ensure that the device would be more reliable than the previous units. After hearing the project’s specifications, the CCS team determined that a fanless PC (FPC) would be the best solution.
Capable of withstanding temperatures ranging from -20 to 55 °C, the FPC recommended by CCS supports solid state and hard disk drives and runs on an Intel® Atom processor. It has a rugged aluminum chassis that disperses heat so that no cooling fans are necessary for operation in extreme temperatures. Being fanless reduces internal airflow, which prevents dust from being drawn through the system, possibly damaging components. The space that would have been used for airflow is thus condensed, creating a smaller footprint and allowing the unit to be deployed in spaces not available to traditional PCs. Since the device has no moving parts, the amount of time and money WRA would have to spend repairing the system and dealing with downtime would decrease. These characteristics make the unit more reliable and a good fit for WRA’s application.
Improved Reliability
Mr. Bill Jones, Executive Vice President of WRA, describes WRA’s thoughts on the FPC selected by CCS: “When transitioning from our old industrial computers to the new CCS platform, we had both types of units deployed in the field at the same time. While this occurred, we were able to see how much more reliable the CCS units were than our old industrial computers. Almost two years later, the new FPCs are being deployed in a variety of different environments, and their performance continues to impress us.” Mr. Jones expanded by explaining that, “Since implementing CCS’ FPCs, our device failure rates have dropped nearly 75%. Thanks to CCS, we have saved countless hours and dollars that would have been spent creating and installing replacement units."
Why choose CCS? Mr. Jones states that, “The company’s willingness to serve its customers is unrivaled. With CCS’ assistance, we were able to develop a control unit that allows us to shut down a facility if theft is detected or if there is a catastrophic leak. After receiving some helpful suggestions from the CCS team, we were also able to improve our manufacturing quality control procedures.”
“The thing that most impresses us about CCS is its ability to customize the solution provided to fit our exact specifications. They made the adjustments necessary to ensure that the unit had the right configuration to function with other equipment we had already deployed on our site,” said Mr. Jones. He continued by sharing that “We would definitely recommend CCS to others, and are looking forward to working with them in the future.”
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