EC: Bedrock Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS.500)

Power — Energy, power protection, UPS: The first IIoT-enabled cyber secure, standalone lithium ion battery based UPS for industrial control applications. Powerful onboard electronics enhance battery performance, manage embedded cyber protection and enable secure Ethernet. This is a Control Engineering 2017 Engineers’ Choice Awards Finalist.

October 13, 2016

As industrial devices get more intelligent and connected, they also become more vulnerable to disruption. The Bedrock UPS.500 replaces space-hogging, energy-sapping, centralized lead acid battery backup systems with compact, Ethernet-enabled distributed units. Significantly more energy efficient, manageable, and IIoT compatible, it is also far less vulnerable to cyber threat.

The Bedrock unit provides 24 Vdc 12Ah of power for any DCS, PLC, PAC or SCADA RTU application. An onboard secure microcontroller manages the lithium Ion (Li-Ion) polymer battery cell-by-cell, uniquely augmenting Li-Ion’s characteristic high density, rapid charging, extreme temperature tolerance and useful life. The UPS.500 recharges 10 times faster than conventional lead acid battery system.

Bedrock Automation’s patented, embedded deep trust ICS cyber security works transparently and instantly upon startup to manage Bedrock’s authentication process. This authentication strategy protects UPS hardware, firmware, software, and communication throughout its entire lifecycle. A few other industrial UPSs have onboard electronics—but none offer comparable intelligence, memory or cyber security protection.

This unit delivers a secure onboard microcontroller, with secure 10/100 Mbit Ethernet IPv4 and IPv6 communications and support for an embedded IEC 62541—OPC Unified Architecture Server. Bi-directional communications enable control, diagnostics and status reporting. More than 35 diagnostic variables can be easily monitored, trended, alarmed and historicized via SCADA, enterprise and cloud applications securely.

Encased in sealed aluminum housing, the UPS.500 is compliant with IP67 and NEMA 4X standards for resistance to water, ice, oil, and dust. This contributes to its versatility in IIoT edge deployments, while reducing installation costs by eliminating the need for separate environmental protection enclosures. The ruggedized footprint of the UPS.500 makes it shock- and vibration-proof—ideal for use in extreme environments.

Bedrock Automation, www.bedrockautomation.com