OPC and its role in Industry 4
Industry 4 is very much about integration of production processes. Making equipment, softwares and work processes come together and create an as efficient flow as possible.
OPC (OLE for Process Control) is a standard protocoll that enables integration och data between machine systems and other softwares.
OPC as a common language
OPC is offering a common langauge (protocol) for all machine builders and software developers.
It opens up the possibility to make data integrations between equipment from one company and software services from another company, without having to have planned it from the beginning when then machine and software was designed.
OPC defines the language, not the content
Important to understand is that OPC is only opening up the channel of communication, it is not defining and content or data that is transferred.
That have to be defined in each integration.
That is why there are industry content standards based on OPC UA to standardize integrations even further
Weihenstephaner Standards (Food & Beverage) https://www.weihenstephan-standard.com/en/ws-goes-opc-ua/
MT Connect (NC machines) https://www.mtconnect.org/
Euromap 83 (Plastic and rubber machinery) https://www.euromap.org/euromap83
And more …
The standard
Open Platform Communications is a series of standards and specifications for industrial telecommunication. An industrial automation task force developed the original standard in 1996 under the name OLE for Process Control.
Read more on OPC Foundations home page https://opcfoundation.org/
OPC UA and OPC DA
RS Production support booth OPC-UA and DA servers. If you already have the OPC infrastructure in place, please contact our support and we will guide you to get the OPC values to our cloud. You will need to install a gateway-server on your local network, configure which signals you need i RS Production and then you are ready to go.