GarrettCom Debuts Six-Port Ethernet Switches For The Factory Floor

GarrettCom Inc. has unveiled a family of compact, six-port Ethernet edge switches specifically designed for the factory floor. The Magnum ES42 series switches are meant to provide direct connectivity from the IT department to industrial monitoring and control applications over fiber optic cable, or aggregated over copper.

About the size of a deck of cards, the Magnum ES42 switches feature six ports, with 277 possible configurations. The three models in the product line range are equipped with different combinations of fiber and copper ports, ranging from an all-copper unit, to one with two configurable 100 Mb fiber and four 10/100 Mb copper connections. The switches boast a "Link-Loss-Learn" feature that allows them to flush their address buffers and relearn routing on reception of a link loss signal, providing rapid recovery from network errors.

In addition to the three basic models, the switches come in three levels of hardening for different deployment environments, ranging from the office to the outdoors. The units hardened for deployment on the factory floor are built with high-grade metal casing and feature fan-free cooling systems that enable the switches to resist industrial contaminants like dust, smoke and moisture. They can be mounted in rack-mount trays, DIN rails and stand-along panels. GarrettCom also offers a premium-level of hardening for outdoor deployments, employing the same technologies.

GarrettCom's Magnum ES42 edge switches are available through resellers at prices starting at $380. Prices for models hardened for industrial applications start at hardened products start at $460, depending on configuration.