How Industrial PCs Boost Performance and Reduce Carbon Footprint

Industrial PCs are found in factories, warehouses, construction sites, and other locations right around the world. With so many devices already deployed in the field, this translates to a great deal of energy usage each day, so sustainability and carbon footprint become important concerns.

With this in mind, how can industrial PC motherboards achieve exceptional performance while still keeping their carbon footprints low? Read on to discover more.

An industrial PC is simply any computing device designed to be used in an industrial environment. While your at-home personal computer might be sensitive to high temperatures or extreme environments, an industrial PC is designed to be more robust. From construction sites with high levels of dust and contamination in the air through to marine environments with excessive levels of moisture, you will find industrial PCs handling important computing tasks for site managers.

To develop an industrial PC, you need two key elements. Firstly, you'll need an industrial PC motherboard that can provide the required computing power while still standing up to regular usage in unfavorable environments.

Next, you need the device housing in which the motherboard will be deployed. This housing is designed to be highly robust, and it will usually be fitted with seals and filters that protect sensitive interior components. Devices are also likely to need interfaces and connectivity ports – these points of vulnerability will require extra levels of protection.

Industrial PCs are valuable in any application where data processing is required in a challenging environment. For example:

• Gathering and interpreting data to power smart manufacturing
• Supporting AI-driven medical devices in a busy hospital or clinic environment
• Automating logistics and supply chain operations in a warehouse or port facility setting

These are just a few examples. As automation and machine learning become intrinsic across all sectors, robust and powerful industrial PCs will play an increasingly important role.

So how do these devices help achieve high levels of performance while still remaining sustainable and eco-friendly? How do the best industrial motherboard manufacturers reduce the carbon footprint of their PC devices? Here are a few key aspects that help industrial PCs reduce their own carbon footprint and that of the organizations that deploy them.

Developing an industrial PC is always an exercise in balance. On one hand, PC devices need to deliver the best possible performance for the organizations that use them, leveraging the latest technology to achieve high-speed processing and reliable data processing.

But on the other hand, these same devices need to be sustainable. They must keep power usage to a minimum, allowing businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and adhere to regulatory guidelines. Of course, this needs to happen without compromise – developers must seek an effective middle ground, achieving both exceptional performance and low power demands.

Modern technology makes this possible. Industrial PC motherboard components like the ECM/MTL 3.5-inch single board computer and the ECM-ASL 3.5-inch embedded module are designed with low power consumption in mind. This gives business owners the capability they need without encountering significant energy consumption and harming ecological sustainability.

It's not just operating the industrial PC device that can put sustainability at risk. Over time, components need to be replaced. This means older components are disposed of, increasing e-waste. At the same time, new components need to be developed, which will also require significant resources.

This is true of all computing components in systems right across the world. However, it's an even bigger concern for industrial PCs. These units are operated in harsh environments and are subject to extreme conditions. High temperatures, high moisture levels, and the risk of shock and impact trauma can knock devices out of commission, and components may need to be replaced more frequently than with standard PCs.

The best industrial motherboard manufacturers bear this in mind during the product development phase. This is why they develop components like the EPI-ARLS EPIC embedded motherboard or the EPX-TWLP 2.5-inch Pico-ITX, which are both designed to be robust and long-lasting. Components like this need to be replaced less often and are therefore more sustainable.

As mentioned above, e-waste is a genuine problem. With so many electrical and digital devices now deployed around the world, landfills are filling up with obsolete or damaged devices that are no longer fit for purpose. This means huge amounts of resources are going to waste, left to degrade in landfills, while their materials could be recycled and reused.

Increasingly, motherboard manufacturers are working to recycle these materials, redeploying them in new electronic devices. This is beneficial in many ways. For example, it's cheaper than developing wholly new materials and also reduces the need to mine new raw materials used in the production of new components.

On top of this, there is no need to compromise efficacy. With the right approaches, components produced with recycled and repurposed materials can be just as effective and reliable as their brand-new counterparts.

Once the industrial PC device is installed, it can continue to help businesses reduce their carbon footprint and prioritize ecological sustainability. With powerful monitoring of industrial networks, these PCs can identify areas of inefficiency and unsustainability. This knowledge gives businesses the chance to optimize the eco-performance of their systems.

In order to guarantee sustainability, businesses need to keep track of power usage, resource utilization, and other important networks. Edge computing devices and powerful sensors, deployed at strategic points across the network, can make this happen. However, these components still rely on an industrial PC device to orchestrate the network and target sustainable operation.

Avalue offers one of the leading ranges of industrial PC components found anywhere across the globe. In addition to this, we provide the components needed to develop other computing systems and the embedded technology that powers modern business. Explore our range today and find the components you need, or reach out to our team directly if you have any questions or queries.