Three years after its launch, the OPC Foundation’s Field Level Communications (FLC) Initiative is preparing for the transition from the first UAFX specification version with the focus on Controller-to-Controller (C2C) to the second UAFX specification version which is extending the UAFX concepts to also cover the use-cases Controller-to-Devices (C2D) and Device-to-Device (D2D).
The first InterOperability Event of the year is scheduled to start March 21, 2022. It is a hybrid event with in-person attendance at Honeywell in Phoenix, AZ as well as the ability to connect remotely. Lots of work has been happening on the Conformance Test Tool (CTT) to keep up with the rapid pace of development of the OPC UA specifications.
PubSub allows using OPC UA directly over the Internet or the cloud using middleware like MQTT and AMQP. Therefore, none of the applications communicate to each other directly. The middleware acts as a broker that directs messages. Therefore Utthunga’s uOPC PubSub Bridge can be implemented as part of an industrialized DMZ, enhancing security.
An international producer of high-tech filter systems needed to connect its production sites in almost 25 countries to SAP Business Suite for both enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution system (MES) purposes. Softing provided a two-tier solution based on OPC UA to meet the challenge.
Multi-vendor installations of secure production systems corresponding to the international standard OPC UA are spreading. This article introduces an example of the OPC UA products that are used in these systems and the various software packages to which they can be securely and easily connected.
A fundamental challenge of Industrie 4.0 and IIoT applications is the secure, standardized exchange of data and information between devices, machines and services – even across industries. OPC UA is the industry standard for manufacturer- and platform-independent communication and it can be used extremely efficiently with TwinCAT software from Beckhoff.
What are the biggest communication gaps between production environments and ERP systems? Five areas in production are particularly affected that slow down production processes and increase both error rates and workload. How can OPC UA bridge these gaps? Software Toolbox explains how their tools fit.
One of the big challenges that customers are facing today is how to collect, visualize, and analyze production data scattered through a production site and utilize it to improve productivity. A mixture of old and new devices, and various networks and vendors’ products makes it difficult. Takebishi offers solutions based on OPC UA to meet these challenges.
In this interview, Raymond Van der Tas, ICONICS Solution Sales Supervisor, explains the many ways the company has leveraged OPC to deliver its substantial features and benefits to users for a competitive advantage.
Matrikon offers two whitepapers regarding OPC Classic. The first discusses security in general and the second discusses the changes coming to DCOM security in 2023. Also Matrikon FLEX v5 supports OPC UA PubSub over MQTT.