Tom Sepaniak – Ipsen Software Engineer & Technical Support
Q: Major storms occasionally cause power outages at our plant. How can I make sure that our vacuum furnace database will be able to recover from a sudden loss of power?
At a time when high-tech industries demand detailed archived recordings of every process, data management is a critical part of modern thermal processing.
As always, we recommend that our customers make a point to complete a regular schedule of system backups. Industry standards may differ; while some of our customers may run backups once or twice a month, others perform daily backups. For a full walkthrough of backing up your Ipsen furnace data, check out this step-by-step guide.
One of the ways that Ipsen protects users’ data is by installing an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) on every furnace control computer. These units are designed to recognize a power outage, and alert users to properly shut down the computer. Some systems may include a script that will save and shut down active processes during an outage.
Each UPS runs on batteries, and Ipsen recommends changing these out every three years. Because the UPS systems we use are integrated to communicate their status with the PC, we recommend replacing these as a part of your regularly scheduled service call, but if it’s been more than three years, we’d encourage you to check with your Ipsen Customer Service Team to make sure they inspect and replace the UPS on their next visit.
For more helpful tips, visit our Ask the Expert Page.
