Forte Automation Systems - Y2K Information

Introduction

Many companies have been concerned about the effect of the date change to the Year 2000 (Y2K). Forte Automation shares the concern in our industry regarding Y2K and has been proactively addressing the effect of the year change on our products, supplied components, and support systems. We are committed to superior quality, on-time delivery and uninterrupted service, and are taking full opportunity to prepare our business to run without interruption from the current time to well past the Year 2000.
Forte Automation has taken (or will take) the following steps toward Y2K compliance:

Development and implementation of a comprehensive Y2K compliance plan uncluding business systems, technical infrastructure, end user computing, suppliers, agents and service providers, manufacturing and service systems, plant and office facilities, end products and testing facilities.

Upgrade corporate computer application software (in-house modified, no home-grown) and operating system software to proper versions with recommended vendor-supplied patches to vendor certify Y2K compliance.

Perform standard date tests on all personal computer equipment and PC-based application software identifying all potential failures and scheduling necessary replacements.

Confirm Y2K compliance with all vendors, agents, and service providers.

Review stand-alone manufacturing systems and devices for date/clock dependencies, testing and replacing all equipment failing tests.

Perform standard tests on robotics and controlling units, results documented.

Review stand-alone testing/configuration systems and devices for date/clock dependencies, testing and replacing all equipment failing tests.

Product Compliance

To ensure that the change in the calendar year to 2000 will have no effect on all our current vendor controllers, the following tests were performed:

Date Rollover Test

This test checks for the system compliance after the date changes from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000. The date successfully changed from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000.

Day of Week Text

This test checks for the system day of the week display on January 1, 2000. The system should display Saturday on January 1, 2000 (the day of the week on January 1, 1900 was Monday). This test was successful, and the day of the week displayed Saturday on January 1, 2000.

Manual Date Test

This test checks for the sytem capability to handle manual entry of the Year 2000. Some systems may revert to a default date (1980 or 1984) when the date is set to 2000. This test was successful and manual entry of the Year 2000 is possible.

Leap Year Test

This test checks for the system capability to recognize the Year 2000 as a leap year. Years that can be divided by 4 are considered leap years unless they are even centuries. In that case, they are leap years if they are divisible by 400. After February 28, 2000, the system should display February 29, 2000. All tests regarding the leap year issue were successful.

File Revision Date

This test checks for the system capability to recognize that files and alarms are created in the Year 2000 or in later years are more recent than files created in 1999 or earlier years. Some systems may recognize only the last two digits of the year. In that case, files that are created in 2001 are considered more recent than files created in 1999 and prevent the system from uploading the files that are created in 2000 or later years. All tests regarding the system capability to recognize file and alarm dates were successful.

Conclusion

The change from the Year 1999 to 2000 has no effect on any controller used by Forte Automation Systems, Inc.