A typical manufacturing plant has a diverse assortment of machinery, robots, and flexible manufacturing systems that fabricate and assemble various products. These machines are often driven by programmable automation controllers (PACs) and use a human-machine interface (HMI) for configuration, notifications and routine control. With automated systems growing in number and increasingly interconnected, programmable controller hardware, software and HMI access control become crucial.
Traditionally the task of authentication and authorization of personnel who operate, update and maintain manufacturing systems in industrial automation applications is accomplished using one or more methods. Among them are magnetic stripe cards, smart (chip) cards, RFID cards, PIN pads and key switches.User authentication and authorization to access industrial automation equipment in factories today must be easy to use, flexible, durable, secure, and standup well to environmental elements. RFID card systems address these application requirements better than other methods and offer added benefits.RFID cards are the most widely used form of identity authentication and access control today.
