An innovative development with many possibilities

Getting industrial equipment to communicate

HMS has long been the developer and marketer of products and solutions within industrial information and communication technology. Loosely translated, it provides the tools through which one industrial equipment can communicate with another. Now HMS is expanding its product range with the Intesis 700 series. A breakthrough for building managers, plant owners and system integrators.

HMS Network Benelux is a subsidiary organization of the Swedish company HMS Networks. From offices in seventeen countries, professionals - linked by the motto "Hardware Meets Software™" - work to develop, manufacture and sell products at the forefront of technology. On the one hand, there are equipment makers. "Just think of the developers of fire alarm, access control, lighting and heating systems," clarifies Vincent Wagenaar, general manager of HMS Network Benelux. On the other side are the users. "These are, for example, building managers who use industrial equipment." HMS solutions allow them to connect their products.

Until now, systems for fire alarm, lighting or heating each communicate in their own language. This makes it difficult for building managers to link the units together. The 700 series makes this considerably easier, because it gathers the most common protocols for building automation - such as BACnet, Modbus, M-Bus, DALI and KNX. With Intesis MAPS, the building manager selects the protocols he needs and then links the systems together. Changing a protocol is also problem-free. 

The possibilities with Intesis products are many. Wagenaar clarifies this using an example. "With the increase in the number of electric cars, we see a rapidly growing need for electric charging stations. EV chargers are available for private parking lots, public parking lots, shopping centers, public transportation, et cetera. Both energy management and the availability of EV parking spaces require a lot of communication between the building management system and the charging stations. The Intesis protocol translation between the widely used OCPP and Modbus RTU/TCP enables monitoring, controlling, starting and stopping the EV charging stations. This allows building system integrators and EV charging point manufacturers to provide easy, cost-effective and reliable monitoring and control of the OCPP 1.6-compatible EV charging points from any Modbus-based automation system." 

The 700 Series software is remarkably user-friendly. For the most common installations, HMS developed templates that simplify interfacing. It also provides practical training - at HMS or on site - that teaches installers, project managers and firms how to handle the equipment. "Some couplings are more complex than others. In complicated situations, our people bring the coupling into being and teach administrators how to work with it optimally."

However complex, HMS is and always has been an excellence in simplicity, and the 700 Series is no exception.