GE IC694ACC310A Rx3i Blank Filler Module with Hot-Swap Retention

Description

In today’s high-speed manufacturing and process environments, keeping a control system alive during a fault or routine maintenance is no longer a luxury; it’s a baseline expectation. The moment a single I/O module fails or needs replacement, the old reality of taking an entire rack offline for ten or twenty minutes can translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars lost on a fast-moving production line. Engineers running GE Rx3i PACSystems routinely face this exact scenario when working with densely packed distributed I/O, especially in applications where stopping the process is either expensive or simply not allowed. This is precisely the problem the GE IC694ACC310A was built to eliminate. As a genuine Rx3i blank filler module with active hot-swap retention circuitry, the GE IC694ACC310A lets you pull and replace any adjacent I/O module while the backplane stays fully energized and the controller continues scanning without missing a single cycle. It’s a small part that delivers an outsized impact on overall system availability in industrial automation settings that demand true zero-downtime maintenance.

The GE IC694ACC310A occupies one slot in any Rx3i universal backplane (IC694CHSxxx series) and does exactly what its name implies: it fills an empty slot while preserving the hot-insertion infrastructure that GE engineered into the platform. When you install it, the module closes the high-speed PCI-based PACSystems bus across that position and maintains proper termination so the rest of the rack sees a clean electrical path. More importantly, the active latch circuitry inside the filler keeps the backplane interlocks satisfied, which is what actually permits the neighboring modules to be removed and reinserted live. Without a filler or a real module in every slot, the Rx3i safety interlock opens and the whole rack drops offline; the GE IC694ACC310A prevents that from ever happening. It’s completely passive from a data standpoint; there’s no configuration, no I/O mapping, and no power draw beyond a few milliwatts for the latch circuit.

Choosing the GE IC694ACC310A is one of those decisions that feels trivial until the first time you need to swap a failed analog input card at 2 a.m. without tripping the line. The filler ensures that every slot in the rack can be serviced live, which directly protects your uptime KPIs and eliminates the need for scheduled outages just to replace or upgrade I/O. Many plants discover after their first hot-swap event that the few dollars spent on fillers across all racks pays for itself in a single avoided shutdown. It also future-proofs the installation: leave a handful of IC694ACC310A fillers in place today, and tomorrow you can drop in new high-density modules without ever powering down the rack.

You’ll see the GE IC694ACC310A installed in virtually every serious Rx3i deployment that takes availability seriously. Automotive body shops and assembly lines use them to guarantee that a failed proximity-switch input doesn’t halt an entire transfer line. Pharmaceutical batch systems in FDA-validated plants keep fillers in every spare slot so validation protocols never have to account for rack power cycles. Water and wastewater SCADA sites scattered across hundreds of remote pump stations rely on them to enable a technician to replace a discrete output module with nothing more than a screwdriver and a replacement part.

IC694ACC300 – Legacy Series 90-30 blank filler (not hot-swap compatible)

IC694ACC301 – Long-style filler for older 17-slot Rx3i bases

IC694MDL660 – 32-point 24 VDC input module often protected by the ACC310A

C694MDL940 – 16-point relay output module commonly swapped live thanks to fillers

IC694ALG223 – High-density analog input replacement made painless with hot-swap retention

IC695CHS012 – 12-slot universal backplane that requires fillers in every empty position

IC695PBM300 – PROFIBUS master module typically installed next to ACC310A fillers

IC695RMX128 – Redundancy memory module for high-availability racks using multiple fillers

Before you walk away from a new or retrofitted Rx3i rack, make sure every empty slot contains a GE IC694ACC310A; the backplane will refuse hot insertion without them. Confirm you’re using a CHSxxx universal base (not the older non-hot-swap bases), and verify that the rack power supplies are rated for the total load with some headroom. Installation is literally snap-in; the blue handle locks exactly like a regular I/O module. For ongoing confidence, just visually check that the handle is fully latched and that the adjacent modules show steady green OK LEDs after any maintenance event. There is nothing to calibrate, no firmware to update, and no spare-parts strategy beyond keeping a few extras in stores.