SPONSORED BY: ATLAS COPCO
Atlas Copco is releasing its first range of OPC UA-enabled compressors. The launch of the newest GA 37+-45+ range of oil-injected screw compressors, available with OPC UA technology, marks a milestone in this integration process. It will be followed soon by other oil-free and oil-injected compressors, as well as auxiliary equipment.
As a member of the OPC Foundation, Atlas Copco is a strong proponent of OPC UA technology, which, thanks to its cutting-edge security, unique information modeling capabilities, and wide support in the industrial sector, is perfectly suited to monitor and control state-of-the-art air systems. Atlas Copco’s newest compressors can easily be integrated in modern SCADA, MES and ERP systems by taking advantage of the aforementioned modeling capabilities. By using the powerful modeling language that OPC UA offers, Atlas Copco has defined a digital representation of its machines. This digital representation, which is not found in any classic fieldbus or industrial Ethernet technology, significantly reduces the effort needed to connect to a machine and interpret its data correctly.
Through the development of the Compressed Air Systems (CAS) Companion Specification, Atlas Copco is equally committed to steering the entire compressed air industry toward digital standardization. The goal of this effort, which is led by a consortium of industrial and academic partners, is to create an industry-wide standard representation of a compressed air system. When the companion specification will eventually be released, a simple software update will suffice to make the machines fully compliant with the new standard.
Atlas Copco is currently making the transition to Industry 4.0 in all aspects of its production facilities around the world. It is therefore keenly aware of the importance of key enabling technologies such as OPC UA, which is why the release of its new range of OPC UA-enabled compressors is such an important step in the development of Industry 4.0.
Atlas Copco’s OPC UA-enabled compressors can be combined with the company’s well-established SmartLink cloud platform, which offers insights, dashboards, and the possibility to let Atlas Copco take total responsibility of a compressed air system. Together, OPC UA and SmartLink offer the benefits of real-time on-site monitoring, as well as of smart insights and optimal availability from anywhere in the world.