UK COMPANIES TAKE BIOMETRIC SOLUTION TO US

Derby, UK based AJM Automation (www.ajmautomation.com), the UK and Ireland 
distributor for CTC Parker Hannifin Automation's range of touchscreen PCs, HMIs and 
associated software, has joined forces with Leicester, UK based systems and software 
house Ultima Control Systems (www.ultimacontrolsystems.com) to develop an 'out of the 
box' FDA 21CFR11 compliant operator station based on biometric technology.

AJM's solution comprises the recently introduced PX15 PowerStation touchscreen 
machine monitor, housed in a custom designed stainless steel front bezel to meet hygiene 
standards in the food and beverage and pharmaceutical industries and running CTC 
Parker's InteractX HMI software. Incorporated into the bezel is Authentec's USB 
fingerprint sensor which is interfaced to the system by Ultima's DataTrak software.

TRACEABILITY
DataTrak is designed to facilitate FDA21CFR11, FDA 21CFR1 (traceability) and 
EC178/2002 compliance by taking care of all of the basic regulatory functionality 
including operator logon, local security policy, audit trails, batch reports and event logs. 
In line with FDA requirements, which insist that biometric security systems are backed 
up by conventional password systems, DataTrak supports three operating modes: 
Standard which simply requires username and password; Biometric Identify which relies 
solely on fingerprint identification; and Biometric Confirmation in which the user is 
identified by fingerprint but is then prompted for a password.

Users can be allocated up to four security levels - Operator, Supervisor, Engineer and 
Administrator - and local  security policies such as password length, password expiration, 
logon expiration and
user lockout can be accommodated. Audit trails, event logs, alarm logs, test logs and
batch reports can be stored in local or networked files or in a SQL2000 or Oracle
database.

Although the standard 'out of the box' solution runs the InteractX HMI package, the 
system can also be implemented with virtually any other SCADA/HMI package, allowing 
end-user preferences to be accommodated. In addition Ultima supplies the DataTrak 
software and sensor as an OEM solution for incorporation into other vendors' hardware. 
It is also currently working on an iris or retina scan based solution.

NEXT STOP NEW YORK
Meanwhile AJM and Ultima are off to New York later in the month to show their 
solution to a wider audience at Interphex. "Parker are very impressed with our approach,
so are being very supportive to us," said AJM managing director Andy Markgraf. "They 
are looking to adopt our design into their mainstream catalogue, which will pole vault us 
into massive global market opportunities. With their supply and technology 
infrastructure, we can reach and support users anywhere in the world."

 
ENDS

Further Information:
Andy Markgraf, AJM Automation, 8 Welland Road, Hilton, Derby DE65 5GZ
Tel: +44 1283 734388   Fax: +44 1283 734788