OPC UA for Machinery: Interface description for the entire mechanical engineering

Extensive work is currently being carried out under the umbrella of the VDMA to standardize the interfaces of machines and components in individual sectors. In the "OPC UA for Machinery" Companion Specification all basic information models resulting from this work are combined.
The preferred standard for these future-oriented interfaces is OPC UA (Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture). OPC UA offers besides the technology the possibility to describe products and functions. This is done in the form of so-called Companion Specifications, which are specific to the industry. Currently, around 30 working groups within the VDMA are working on such Companion Specifications, and over 450 companies in the industry are involved in the preparation process.
Due to the central coordination within the VDMA, it turned out that some interface contents occur across industries. Accordingly, the idea was born to create a basic specification for the entire machine and plant construction. This base specification will be called "OPC UA for Machinery". On the one hand, this is to be used as a basic building block for existing and emerging Companion Specifications. On the other hand, machines or equipment of the mechanical engineering industry can use the contents of the specification if no standardized interface of their own industry is yet available.
"OPC UA for Machinery is the basic building block for Industrie 4.0 communication"
In order to enable early adaptation, content is developed and published in so-called building blocks. This reduces the development time and thus allows to use content that would otherwise not be public. In addition, depending on requirements, only certain or all building blocks can be used in the industry-specific Companion Specifications. This also applies to use without industry-specific companion specifications.
Procedure and working method
- Identification and nameplate of machines
- Finding all machines in the server
- Identification and nameplate of components
- Machine status
Contact
Heiko Herden
VDMA Forum Industrie 4.0 / OPC UA
Phone +49 69 6603-1315
E-Mail heiko.herden@vdma.org