Articles and News

The market increasingly demands individualized products. Product life cycles are getting shorter and average lot sizes are getting smaller. Considering this, cost efficient production in a globalized and resource limited environment requires a highly flexible (IT-) infrastructure that also works well in cross-enterprise networks. It requires a reshaped automation data pyramid.

Besides the existing Request/Response mechanism, which requires a “standing” connection between an OPC Client (data consumer) and an OPC Server (data provider), OPC UA will be enhanced with an additional communication schema following the principles of Publish-Subscribe.

AutomationML is a data exchange standard for engineering data standardized in IEC 62814.

The new edition is available for comments until April 8, 2016.

By Gerrit Boysen and Mariam Coladonato, Phoenix Contact The requirements placed on a firewall in a production zone are different from those in the office world. Therefore, using an industrial firewall with a NAT function can support the individual, simple segmentation of networks.

The OPC standard allows the EyeSens sensors and EyeVision software to function as OPC server.

The acquisition will enhance PTC’s portfolio of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and accelerate the company’s entry into the factory setting and Industrial IoT (IIoT).

By Wim Pessemier, KU Leuven Information modeling, or the ability to express not only data but also the meaning of data, is a key concept in the quest to make systems more intelligent, more autonomous and more evolvable.

This specification describes the mapping of the Sercos information model to OPC UA so that functions and data of Sercos devices are made available and accessible via OPC UA.

Informatica, Splunk, and ThingWorx are among alliance members committed to meeting market potential for Internet of Things (IoT) with industrial automation data.

Stack allows a standard Ethernet network to be used for deterministic data exchange based on the emerging IEEE Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standard.

Cogent DataHub will feature both OPC UA server and OPC UA client connectivity.

The OPC Foundation and the M2M Alliance signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

The OPC Foundation and the Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

The OPC Foundation and Profibus & Profinet International (PI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding.

Production of hydrogen and electricity at zero emissions, thanks to aluminum combustion.

By Aron Semle, Kepware Technologies OPC UA, HTTP, MQTT, CoAP, DDS, and AMQP all have a place in IoT. Which protocols take majority market share is unclear, but each has its pros and cons. It’s important to pick the protocol that best fits your needs, and select technology partners that can adapt to these protocols.

The project called for between 1,000 and 1,500 well sites to come online in 2014, and beyond 6,000 by 2030, over an area of more than 4,500 km2.

The City of Enid, Oklahoma, uses Iconics software and OPC to manage its water production, distribution and reclamation system.

An unnamed manufacturer needed to gather comprehensive temperature and humidity data across facilities where vacuum furnaces operate to harden materials. An OPC server connected 10 sensors to the control system.