Innovations made in NRW OPC UA / umati - VDMA
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Innovations made in NRW OPC UA / umati
Content
Foreword 3
Prof. Dr Andreas Pinkwart
Foreword 4
Wolf D. Meier-Scheuven
OPC UA – the global production language 5
VDMA e. V.
Step by step towards OPC UA 8
Reinhardt-Technik GmbH
Smart Factory with loT: Networked plastic 10
components use OPC UA standard
igus GmbH
Injection moulding production speaks OPC 12
ENGEL Automatisierungstechnik Deutschland GmbH
Digitalising productions in the SME sector 14
thyssenkrupp Materials IoT GmbH
OPC UA takes machine and system scalability to a 16
new level
ASENTICS GmbH & Co. KG
umati – bringing OPC UA into the global use in 19
mechanical and plant engineering
VDMA e. V.
Networking machine tools in production using umati 20
ELHA-MASCHINENBAU Liemke KG
OPC UA as a key success factor in new 22
product development
Heinrich Georg GmbH
Information models for OPC UA, ready to use 24
at your fingertips
Klingelnberg GmbH
PC-based control – the umati enabler 26
Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co. KG
OPC UA ensures communication in the 28
learning steelworks
SMS digital GmbH
Imprint 30
Business leaders,
members of the business community,
The ability to innovate, technical know-how and a commitment to imple-
menting new ideas and practices are key characteristics of successful
businesses. These skills have made our industry what it is today: a driver
of growth that is strong in exports, sets new standards worldwide, and
©: MWIDE NRW/E. Lichtenscheid
leads the way in progress and advancement. And it is these strengths
that give us the crucial impetus in shaping the digital transformation.
In the age of Industrie 4.0, companies in North Rhine-Westphalia can
build on this foundation, securing competitiveness and the ability to
address the challenges of the future.
Prof. Dr Andreas Pinkwart
Minister of Economic Affairs,
Information and internet technologies are being designed over, step
Innovation, Digitalization by step, into products, processes and manufacturing. One of the main
and Energy of the State of
North Rhine-Westphalia challenges in this process is the secure, standardized exchange of data
and information that defines industrial cooperation. The communica-
tion technology OPC UA, the OPC UA interface standards developed
in the mechanical and plant engineering industry and the umati label
support machine-to-machine industrial communication as well as
system-to-machine interaction. OPC UA, as an Open Source model and
interface standard independent of manufacturers, defines the ‘gram-
mar of the universal language’ of mechanical and plant engineering. This
is a step towards digital sovereignty, and opens up new opportunities
for businesses in global trade.
Scores of best practice examples demonstrate the involvement of North
Rhine-Westphalian companies in the development of and proficiency
in this machine ‘language’. They may offer a motivating incentive and
helpful impetus to look beyond the coronavirus pandemic that current-
ly dominates our lives and envisage the tremendous opportunities that
the digital transformation holds in store – in which North Rhine-West-
phalia has been a driving force. In our capacity as the state government,
we take this motivation as support for our goal of leading North Rhine-
Westphalia into the digital forefront and developing it into Europe’s most
cutting-edge industrial location.
Warm regards
Prof. Dr Andreas Pinkwart
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 3
Dear Reader
The increasing digitalisation of products and production processes calls
for a changed type of industrial communication. Manufacturing com-
panies have an individual mix of different machines and equipment,
robots and systems that are linked to one another to a greater or lesser
extent. The ideal industrial or technical communication network should
have an architecture that enables all components to be connected
to one another – at the customer’s end and in the manufacturer’s pro-
duction facility.
©: Boge
One step on the path to achieving this level of interconnectedness is
the Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture technology
Wolf D. Meier-Scheuven
Spokesman for the
standard OPC UA and standardised OPC UA interfaces, as well as
ProduktionNRW umati, which represents the community of mechanical and plant engi-
Competence Network
neering practitioners. This community has banded together to dissemi-
nate the OPC UA standards in mechanical and plant engineering.
The mechanical and plant engineering industry in North Rhine-West-
phalia has a superbly positioned SME sector and the ideal conditions to
be at the forefront of the digitalisation revolution. As a provider and user
of Industrie 4.0 technologies, it has a pivotal role to play. But industrial
interconnectedness via OPC UA is only one side of the coin. Networking
with businesses and partners along the value-added chain is just as
important, because innovation is very rarely a solo effort. Especially
when implementing Industrie 4.0, networking within and outside tra-
ditional industry definitions – nationally and globally – is a key way to
broaden your business’s opportunities, and offers potential for growth.
Networks such as the ProduktionNRW Competence Network are an
important building block for business success. As with industrial
networks, the success of this particular network is achieved through
active exchange of information among its members. On that note: get
involved in our network and get ready to see your business move to
the next level!
Warm regards
Wolf D. Meier-Scheuven
4 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW
OPC UA – the global
production language
In the world of digital production, it’s essential that machines from
different manufacturers can communicate with each other. That’s why
uniform standards are needed, and VDMA is playing a vital part in
creating them: the OPC UA Companion Specifications.
Systems
©: VDMA
Machines
OPC UA enables cross- Components
hierarchy communication
from the shop floor to
the cloud.
OPC UA is the preferred Industrie 4.0 The communication level focuses on The information level focuses on the
standard for the mechanical and plant transmission technologies and proto- information to be transmitted via OPC
engineering industry. VDMA recognis- cols that can be used to transmit in- UA and set down in information mod-
ed at an early stage that OPC UA can be formation. Components, machines and els, for example, technical properties.
used as the basis for Industrie 4.0 use plant have to be able to exchange data This includes descriptive detail such
cases. Industrie 4.0 communication and information with no impediments. as the name of the manufacturer,
using OPC UA can mainly be consid- Adopting OPC UA as a communication device type and device configuration,
ered on two levels in this context: com- technology solution makes multiven- as well as process data such as tem-
munication and information. dor, secure communication achievable, peratures, pressures, feed rates and
from the shop floor to the cloud. cycle times. Standardisation applies
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 5
only to established interface infor- of application reduces interface com- sociations. The content of the OPC
mation in this case. In other words, plexity in terms of the communication UA Companion Specifications can
the standards include no information technologies. be drawn only from the professional
relevant to market competition or knowledge held by these companies.
copyright. OPC UA Companion Specifications In addition to companies in mechan-
make multivendor standardisation of ical engineering and plant construc-
“Easy integration” required technical properties and information tion, integrators, system providers and
The goal is to encourage “plug & pro- possible. It’s only with this standard- users are also included in the work on
duce” through interoperability at the ised description that the structure the OPC UA Companion Specifica-
communication and information levels. and unique meaning of the machine tions. The broad pattern of opinions
In the long term, efficient integration of type are set down via the interface. and collaboration ensures acceptance
components, machines and plant into All components, machines and plant in and thus also utilisation of the OPC
existing production lines or systems the network understand the meaning of UA Companion Specifications around
will become reality. At the moment, the shared information in the same way. the world.
however, the interface technologies and As a result, they can be efficiently inte-
the information to be shared via these grated into production and systems. In addition, VDMA is working with the
technologies differ from manufacturer OPC Foundation to develop the OPC
to manufacturer and are developed to VDMA – a key player UA Companion Specifications, which
suit individual customers. The details of the OPC UA Companion in turn ensures even greater worldwide
Specifications are elaborated by the acceptance and adoption. VDMA iden-
This is where OPC UA, used as an inter- members of VDMA, as well as nation- tified the OPC UA Companion Speci-
face, can also be considered as an inte- al and international companies. VDMA fications at an early stage as a core
grator in the areas of communication looks after the working groups in the initiative for practically implementing
and information, since its broad range respective professional and trade as- interoperable communication and in-
©: VDMA
Multisector interoperability with OPC UA.
6 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW
corporated it into its professional as- UA and the OPC UA Companion Speci- standard, known as “OPC UA for Ma-
sociation work as a strategic and oper- fications. All OPC UA Companion Spe- chinery”, draws on existing indus-
ational field of action, all of which has cifications are available free of charge, try-specific OPC UA standards in the
paid off. and VDMA has set up a download site mechanical engineering and plant con-
for the purpose, in German and English, struction industry, and those that are
VDMA has now leveraged into the glob- which all industries around the world currently in progress.
al centre of gravity for the development can access to view the Companion
of OPC UA Companion Specifications Specifications even in their draft stage: It’s important in this context to take
for the mechanical engineering and opcua.vdma.org. account of the requirements of the
plant construction industry. In asso- processing industry and the industrial
value-added network as a whole, and
to include stakeholders within and
outside the mechanical engineering
©: VDMA
and plant construction industry. This
not only encourages interoperability
between machines from different sec-
tors in production, but also increases
the speed with which domain-specific
OPC UA Companion Specifications can
be developed.
Andreas Faath
Head Industrial Interoperability
VDMA e. V.
Frankfurt
vdma.org/opcua
OPC UA at a glance
ciation with more than 600 national “OPC UA for Machinery” –
and international companies, about 25 harmonising interfaces for
sub-sectors are involved in more than mechanical engineering as a whole
35 working groups to develop OPC UA Obviously, given the large number of
Companion Specifications for a vast OPC UA Companion Specifications,
range of machine types. The activities there will be instances of repeated in-
by the working groups are generally terface details, such as information to
supported by the industry and are mon- identify machines and components,
itored by VDMA at a professional and or machine condition. This information
an organisational level. The commit- is therefore being harmonised across
ment shown by the companies under- the entire mechanical engineering
lines the role of UPC UA and the Com- industry.
panion Specifications. The objective is
to establish the Standards at a global The German Ministry of Economic Af-
level, which must be based on quality in fairs and Energy (BMWi) has recog-
addition to supply and demand. nised the value of this harmonisation
process, and is sponsoring the relevant
The broad level of stakeholder accept- activities as part of the “Interoperable
ance is partly a consequence of the Interfaces for Intelligent Production
open source approach underlying OPC (II4IP)” project. The cross-industry
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 7
Step by step towards OPC UA
In systems that are integrated into automation solutions, customers have special requirements in
terms of process reliability and want to record and log the relevant process data.
©: Reinhardt-Technik
Reinhardt-Technik GmbH is one of the injection moulding machine. This inter-
leading providers of dosing and mixing face was purely functional and did not
technology for the processing of liquid allow any exchange of process data.
plastics in the fields of bonding, sealing, “When designing the OPC UA interface,
casting and surface coating. The com- we now had to deal with information
pany is the global competence cen- models, methods, events etc, which at
tre for bonding and sealing within the first seemed very academic and lacking
Wagner Group. in practical relevance. In the course of
the project, however, the advantages
Extensive exchange of data with other became increasingly clear to us”, says
systems and equipment is an increas- Thomas Gerke, Senior Manager Sys-
ingly frequent occurrence. The required tems and Applications.
interface types and the corresponding
data structures usually vary from ap- What is the benefit of the effort?
plication to application at a custom- Reinhardt-Technik sees the greatest
er’s facility. Designing these interfaces benefits of an OPC UA interface as the
therefore requires in-depth consulta- LSR eTwin Connect with OPC UA. following:
tions and a substantial individual effort
for project planning and programming. Non-proprietary:
This work can account for more than currently makes implementation very Relevant data exchange can be imple-
25 percent of project scope. The con- difficult and results in considerable mented problem-free using different
trol technology may also have to be additional costs. platforms without having to change the
adapted, since interface type and da- control platform, a step that is costly
ta handling are so closely interlinked Since 2015, Reinhardt-Technik has and requires intensive development.
that implementation on a different been working very closely with Arburg
platform requires a high level of pro- GmbH & Co. KG, a manufacturer of in- Standardised information models:
gramming work. jection moulding machines for plastics In cooperation with the VDMA, the OPC
processing, on the joint design of an Foundation is developing standardised
Integrated concepts must be found OPC UA interface (Euromap 82.3). This information models (Companion Spe-
Small and medium-sized enterprises largely relates to the idea of combining cifications) for a wide variety of indus-
are giving more attention to the issue mixing and dosing systems with injec- tries that will standardise the flow of
of Industrie 4.0, and corresponding ap- tion moulding machines for processing information over the medium and long
plications require significantly greater Liquid Silicon Rubber (LSR). term. For example, by using the OPC
and more structured data exchange UA interface OPC 40082-3 release, any
between different control systems. Up to now, the solution used has been LSR dosing system can interact with
However, there is often a lack of uni- a classic hardware interface between a any injection moulding machine with-
versal, integrated concepts, which two-component dosing system and an out the need for separate adjustment.
8 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW
Largely self-explanatory: Reinhardt-Technik takes a two-pronged S wants complete process
Q
With the option of semantic descrip- approach here, and separates the func- documentation for each individual
tion of machine data, the interface can tional and data interfaces from one process step.
also provide its own description. As a another. The fieldbus is also used to
result, the integrator’s or customer’s control the actual process. OPC UA is The list is not complete, and everyone
programmer can design his part of the used for the exchange of process data has their legitimate requirements. The
interface much faster. that are not time-sensitive. According foundation for all of these analyses
to the company, OPC UA over TSN is is data. These data need to be avail-
Full data exchange: evolving into a fieldbus system that is able, accessed and transmitted from
Not only classic numerical values can not, however, currently supported by as many sources as possible. This
be exchanged via the interface. Com- all fieldbus devices. is precisely where the advantage of
plete events and methods can also be OPC UA lies: it is a standardised, non-
implemented, including the exchange OPC UA balances a variety of proprietary and platform-independent
of entire files. diverse requirements interface.
Many businesses are currently having
What are the limits of OPC UA? the discussion: “What is Industrie 4.0?” “The more industry-specific knowledge
OPC UA is not real-time capable. Practi- is incorporated into their definition,
tioners often refer to ‘OPC UA over TSN’, T he maintenance department wants the more user-friendly the Companion
which guarantees real-time capability. ‘predictive maintenance’. Specifications and the data models are.
However, the network topology with the The production manager wants Operational know-how doesn’t have to
requirements for real-time capability ‘machine learning’ for process be divulged. It’s therefore to everyone’s
must be taken into account. It quickly optimisation. benefit if as many machine and plant
becomes clear that mixing a normal The works manager wants to be manufacturers as possible get involved
network with a real-time network will kept informed on his mobile phone, in the development of the Companion
not work without problems. with quick and clear information, Specifications”, says Gerke. “Through
of the status of production. our work on the Companion Specifi-
cation for surface technology, we be-
lieve we’ll be able to significantly re-
duce the work and costs involved in
©: Reinhardt-Technik
project implementation and start-up in
the future.”
Marcus Naber
R&D Software engineer
Reinhardt-Technik GmbH
Kierspe
www.reinhardt-technik.de
A comparison showing the degree of coordination and the capabilities of an OPC UA interface with a
corresponding Companion Specification and a classic fieldbus, which usually has to be implemented in
a customer-specific manner.
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 9
Smart Factory with loT: Networked plastic
components use OPC UA standard
In today’s world, immeasurable amounts of data are generated in just seconds. And every bit as
important as generating this data is making information available, and the form in which the
information is output. Output via an OPC UA server is the option that probably offers the most
flexibility since this technology is available for all standard providers.
Networking is currently the key word products toward use in a networked, form: the Fanuc Intelligent Edge Link
when it comes to Predictive Mainte- smart environment. Its objective is to & Drive System (FIELD) provides a way
nance and Industrie 4.0. That’s why make servicing and maintenance more to network production machinery to-
igus, a specialist in motion plastics and efficient and more cost-effective. gether. To be able to evaluate data from
a manufacturer and supplier of com- machines and plant at a central level,
ponents made of high-performance Among the tools it needs are industri- this industrial IoT platform can connect
motion plastics – including energy al IoT platforms based on the OPC UA production machinery from any man-
chains, cables and friction bearings – standard, and automation specialist ufacturer via a local network topology,
is increasingly orienting its mechanical Fanuc has developed just such a plat- enabling end-to-end data analysis cov-
©: igus
Integration of igus smart plastics
into the Fanuc FIELD system:
the i.Cee:local hardware collects
data from the isense sensors and
transmits it via a converter to
the FIELD system. Maintenance
technicians can use the igus app to
monitor the condition of compo-
nents such as energy chains.
10 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRWering the entire process chain. In doing By integrating this app, users can mon- condition, record the data at a central
so, it can operate either on-premise or, itor the condition of their energy chains level, and transmit it to a smart system
in future, via a Cloud connection. and cables at any time, and plan main- if required. In doing so, they prevent the
tenance activities predictively. worst-case scenario – system down-
time and production stoppages.
Connection via i.Cee in a secure
©: igus
environment The communications modules in the
Therefore, for large-scale energy chain i.Cee:local series make the data avail-
systems, it’s essential to observe main- able via an integrated OPC UA server.
tenance instructions to ensure maxi- Lastly, an OPC UA converter in the
mum service life. For example, the i.Cee FIELD system connects to the iCee:-
system from igus reminds customers local module as an OPC UA client and
about upcoming inspections or main- communicates via the standardised
tenance work, as happens with cars. OPC UA architecture. Integrating the
These notifications are use-depend- existing i.Cee:local software into the
ent, which means longer maintenance FIELD system was achieved in a very
intervals are possible if an item is not short space of time using the very
heavily used, which can save costs. clearly described OPC UA syntax.
More and more manufacturing busi- The open nature of the FIELD system
nesses are recognising the potential gives users the opportunity to use the
savings offered by networking ma- data and service life predictions for
chines and machine components at the igus products in a protected local
The i.Cee hardware collects data from the i.Sense a data and IT level – through to multi- network environment. The smart plas-
modules, for example, and outputs it in the
company networking using compre- tics app tells the maintenance tech-
desired format via i.Cee software.
hensive standards such as OPC UA. nicians how many days are left before
All sensor data, such as calculations the next maintenance activity is due.
The system collects and analyses ma- of individual service life and the result- Unscheduled system downtime can be
chine data locally. That means oper- ing alerts, can be forwarded to higher- avoided as a result. Users can down-
ating data and sensor data from the level IT systems for evaluation or load the FIELD system apps, includ-
machines can be centrally collected documentation. That applies to Manu- ing the igus smart plastics app, from
and accessed via just a single server. facturing Execution Systems (MES), a store that lets them select their own
Efficiency is easy to monitor, produc- Zero Downtime Systems (ZDT) and preferred software solutions.
tion workflows can be made faster, and software for company-wide mainte-
maintenance activities can be sched- nance, for example.
uled. And thanks to the platform’s Richard Habering
open structure, all machines can be Predictive maintenance thanks to Head of smart plastics
igus GmbH
connected to the system. Apps for the smart networking Cologne
system are available from Fanuc and Under the brand name isense, igus www.igus.de
third-party providers. igus has also cre- markets sensors of all kinds to record
ated an app for its smart plastics and the condition of components and gen-
made it available to the FIELD platform. erate data. They measure component
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 11Injection moulding production speaks OPC
With an OPC UA-based host interface between the injection moulding machine and an MES
(EUROMAP 77), the injection moulding industry got on board with the OPC UA protocol at an early
stage. The possibilities of semantic modelling were a crucial driver. Injection moulding machine
manufacturer ENGEL relies on seamless communication based on the I4.0 layer model in all products.
Complex production systems com- sion of new programming languages, modelling are covered; a range of differ-
prising a host of different components data formats, communication models, ent programming languages and oper-
need efficient interfaces internally as electrical interfaces and ever more ef- ating systems is supported. Instead of
well. The only way to manage this com- ficient and ever smaller components creating its own protocols or modelling,
plexity is a high level of modularisation, that make this communication possi- a company can now pick and choose
starting with the machine design and ble. Enterprises have also carried out from the OPC UA kit.
carrying on through to the software extensive development work on many
solutions. The integration of options levels of the ISO / OSI reference model. Real-time communication is the
into a series production machine or a next milestone
retrofit should have no impact on PLC One of the key benefits of the OPC UA While many technologies have been in
sequence programs or the visualisation base specification is its scope which, wide use for a long time, OPC UA for
system. This requirement is nothing in contrast to previous libraries or machine-to-machine communication
new. Interfaces for the modularisation frameworks, covers all aspects. For the with real-time requirements is still in
of control technology existed 20 years numerous communication models, as
ago. The path up to the present day is well as coding and decoding options,
characterised by a continual progres- all security aspects and standardised
©: ENGEL
Networked injection moulding production: OPC UA is one of the essential
Industrie 4.0 technologies because it allows for modelling on the basis of an
array of predefined data types from basic specifications.
12 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRWthe initial stages. This includes the Many peripheral devices can already user. These include shared data record
EUROMAP 79 robot-machine interface be operated via OPC UA management, very fast signal trans-
from the plastics and rubber industry, The company is endeavouring to build mission, the synchronisation of robot
which uses the pub / sub mechanism on the models from the Companion and machine movements, and com-
with UDP transport protocol. The chal- Specifications. To do this, it is useful bined display of robot and machine on
lenge lies in exchanging data within to bring our own ideas into the VDMA the machine display.
milliseconds; for ten years, this has standardisation process. OPC UA in
worked very well with Ethernet-based particular offers numerous implemen-
fieldbus systems, but these are mostly tation options; not all of them have the
©: ENGEL
based on proprietary solutions with a same level of efficiency and they can
relatively simple communication infra- also differ significantly in terms of com-
structure. When implementing the OPC plexity. Being involved with the mod-
UA pub / sub data exchange, however, els at such an early stage also means
high-performance solutions with the that once in a while, an implementation
shortest possible latency time must needs to be reworked and adapted to
be adapted to the network chips used, a new version of the Specifications.
the TCP / IP stack of the operating sys-
tem used, and ultimately to the existing As things stand, an injection moulding
PLC system. machine can already interact with a
whole range of peripheral devices such
An increasingly critical advantage is the as tempering units, LSR dosing sys-
promised, and to some extent already tems, granulate mixers or hot runners
available, communication infrastruc- via OPC UA and conveniently integrate
ture based on broker or cloud solu- those devices for the user, including Communication between injection moulding
machines and robots poses a particular challenge.
tions with direct OPC UA integration. It shared data management and visualis-
Information on machine and robot movements
will give a further boost to global data ation on the control panel of the injec- needs to be transmitted in real time.
exchange – for uses such as asset tion moulding machine. The interaction
management, condition monitoring, of the various components within the
update management or centralised production cell, regardless of manu- But for users of ENGEL system solu-
management of production systems. facturer, is considerably simplified by tions, the new interface opens up even
ENGEL is incorporating these solutions standardised interfaces. more possibilities. Highly integrated
into its e-connect high-performance production cells can be constructed
customer portal, and is working on ENGEL was one of the drivers behind in a more modular way, using module
other products. the EUROMAP 77 and 82.1 and is now connection systems based on estab-
also contributing its expertise to the lished structured ethernet cabling.
A blank spot in OPC UA client imple- development of EUROMAP 79 for the This will further simplify the config-
mentation processes is the HTML5- operation of handling systems. As the uration and adaptation of production
based browser technologies that are headquarters of ENGEL Automation cells to new tasks, better safeguarding
increasingly finding their way into in- Technology GmbH, the Hagen site in investments.
dustry. Especially in the area of visual- North Rhine-Westphalia is a key plant
isation, this technology is becoming for global automation projects. Linear
more and more widely accepted, and and articulated arm robots in the
Andreas Themann
almost all control unit manufacturers company’s own viper and easix model Managing Director
are forced to come up with their own in- ranges are fully integrated into the ENGEL Automatisierungstechnik
Deutschland GmbH
house solutions. The company has to CC300 control unit of ENGEL’s injec-
Hagen
use its own resources to fill in the gaps tion moulding machines at the Hagen www.engelglobal.com/de
in operability. plant, offering many benefits for the
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 13Digitalising productions in the SME sector
In the SME sector in particular, standardised machine interfaces such as umati /
OPC UA can help companies to push ahead with their digitalisation journey. However,
other building blocks are even more relevant today.
thyssenkrupp Materials IoT GmbH is The role of standardised often is unable to keep pace with de-
the thyssenkrupp Group’s Industrie 4.0 machine interfaces velopments. That means that, for the
service provider, with its own Industri- In the development and implementa- foreseeable future, the reality for the
al Internet of Things (IIoT) platform, tion of digital applications in manufac- digitiser is a raft of different machine
toii®. In addition to thyssenkrupp’s own turing, standardised interfaces such interfaces in manufacturing plants; a
digitised production locations, so far as umati / OPC UA help reduce com- ‘plug & play’ connectivity as on home
numbering more than 30, the service plexity, and thus costs, for the machine computers is still a long way off.
provider also digitises manufacturing connection. When introducing stand-
plants outside its parent company, and ardised entry-level software products, A typical ‘digitalisation journey’
it’s offering this service not only in the the development of interfaces to ma- From paper-based, non-transparent,
metal-working industry but also in in- chines is the single biggest cost driver. inflexible and error-prone production
dustries that are completely unrelated systems to the smart factory, for SMEs
to the Group’s sector, such as plastics. For medium-sized companies in par- a typical digitisation journey is similar
ticular, there is a need to keep the bar- to that of larger companies. For reasons
Often, thyssenkrupp’s factories and riers to the leap into digitisation as low of cost, mid-sized companies often
those of its external customers are on as possible. Unfortunately, no one can decide against a powerful MES (Manu-
a very similar digital transformation expect overnight miracles from inter- facturing Execution System) solution.
journey. In most cases, the goal is to in- face standards, as the investment cycle In the following, therefore, applications
crease productivity and maintain long- of a machine pool – often between 25 in SME-type manufacturing locations
term competitiveness. and 50 years – is considerably longer using machine data acquisition are pre-
than that of software products. Even sented, albeit not exclusively.
The necessary building blocks for digi- retrofitting of machine control systems
talisation, which are reflected in profit-
ability, are
©: tMiOT
1. the right use scenario with a clear
business case
2. an understanding of the context, i.e.
the production processes and the
current production IT landscape
3. the selection or development
and implementation of the right
digitisation solution
4. a successful change management
approach, to ensure all employees
are brought on board
5. adjustments to shop floor
management
Dashboard of a longitudinal divider in the Group’s steel service centre.
14 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRWThese journeys usually start with a stead, they use solely the operating data type of automation. Bidirectional ma-
poor level of information about produc- logged by the machine operator, com- chine connections, for example via OPC
tivity data. These data – if they exist bined with very simple machine data. UA, are of assistance here.
at all – are incomplete, and even then
they’re usually available too late to ef- Systematic machine data With comprehensive job management
fect optimisations within shifts or to acquisition using machines communicating with
enable data-driven learning from one More advanced transparency products OPC UA and connected manual or au-
shift to the next on shift handover. The rely on systematic machine data acqui- tonomous intralogistics, all products
first digitisation steps are therefore sition. It’s here, and on the issue of data can be tracked within the production
aimed at transparency in performance security, that OPC UA really comes into unit, whether geographically or along
indicators. its own. Comprehensive dashboards the manufacturing process. The sys-
with key performance indicators (KPls) tematic evaluation of processing times
generated from machine data are pos- means further optimisation potential
sible. For example, the reasons for mal- can be identified and utilised.
©: tMiOT
functions can be recorded at a very de-
tailed level and analysed later on using
additional operating data acquisition.
©: tMiOT
All transparency products thus provide
a basis for data-driven decisions on
further optimisations and, where appli-
cable, further digitalisation of produc-
tion. Often, the next step is to digitise
sub-processes – such as quality assur-
ance. The integration of manual wire-
less or fully automatic measuring sys-
tems offers complete quality control.
Smart production
The next stage of expansion towards
Digitised saw in prefabrication. the smart factory is fully paperless Thickness measurement report from radiological
thickness measuring.
production. In addition to increased
flexibility, this also offers significant
There are entry-level products to an- productivity gains, especially where The applications outlined above are the
swer the question ‘Are the machines there are frequent ‘recipe changes’ in foundation for ensuring competitive-
producing or not?’ in real time for the manufacturing operations with a wide ness in manufacturing companies, and
entire site. If the answer is no, the rea- variety of products. Production orders can be supplemented by other solu-
sons are systematically identified and are transmitted directly from the ERP tions from the areas of advanced data
recorded: Is the machine currently be- (Enterprise Resource Planning) to the analytics and artificial intelligence.
ing set up? Is it waiting for materials? machine control system. Particular-
Or is there a defect? This informa- ly where there are a large number of
tion can be evaluated over any peri- production parameters, this saves a Sebastian Lang
od of time, thus allowing conclusions considerable amount of time while also Managing Director
thyssenkrupp Materials IoT GmbH
to be drawn about potential areas for maximising the input quality.
Essen
optimisation. www.thyssenkrupp-materials-iot.com
In many cases, complex and modern
These solutions don’t require any so- machines can no longer be operated
phisticated machine interfaces; in- in any worthwhile capacity without this
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 15OPC UA takes machine
and system scalability
to a new level
CONVERSATION WITH DR HORST HEINOL-HEIKKINEN
Interview with Dr Horst Heinol-Heikkinen,
Managing Partner of
ASENTICS GmbH & Co. KG, Siegen.
ance with the user’s own wishes. One of
several benefits offered by digital twins
is interoperability with any number of
other assets.
How does this extend the status of
©: ASENTICS
Machine Vision?
Heinol-Heikkinen: For us as system
Dr Horst Heinol-Heikkinen manufacturers, OPC UA helps us to
make the huge data and information
potential contained in our products
What do Companion Specs do for Vision and the IT company level. In fully usable. That means we’re talking
your company? working toward this goal, however, our about potential strategies for adding
Heinol-Heikkinen: The Companion current information models such as the value! This makes products simpler
Specifications let us simplify and ac- VDMA Companion Specifications reach and more secure – and, we hope, more
celerate the connectivity of Machine their limits, since they generally use attractive for our customers! No other
Vision Systems with their environment, large-scale domain knowledge to re- technology in the context of Industrie
which significantly reduces key factors present the physical functional extents 4.0 has as much information power as
such as commissioning and imple- of individual assets in digital form. Vision Technology. OPC UA creates the
mentation times. These time and cost The “big picture” is still missing. necessary accessibility for us.
savings are important steps toward
making “everyday” automation more This is where the concept of the “digi- Of course, Vision Technology is a big
progressive. tal twin” and its Asset Administration thing as a quality control tool, but vision
Shell (AAS) come into play. This deals can also be used to provide information
Where do OPC UA or the Companion with the whole thing on a top-down about machine condition, whether it’s
Specs reach their limits? basis, with much greater scope, and working properly or if there is wear or
Heinol-Heikkinen: The long-term goal more particularly working from the damage in particular areas. Cameras
is to remove the restraints currently application out. The digital twin sum- can also be used to monitor the factory
imposed on Machine Vision by the bot- marises information or partial models, hall. With vision technology it’s possible
tom-up communication from the field ideally Companion Specifications, by to achieve more, and business fields
level. That will make it much simpler complexity and depth, as part of an can be scaled hugely. This is where the
to share information between Machine Asset Administration Shell in accord- Industrie 4.0 infrastructure is needed.
16 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRWOPC UA, the Companion Specifica- and facilitates highly dynamic commu- behaviour model; in other words, the
tions, and the Digital Twin with its AAS nication to deal with changing tasks. state machine for an Machine Vision
are essential factors for all these possi- device. This resolves an issue that has
ble applications. Another huge benefit is the fact that been problematic for some time: the
the Companion Specifications only complexity, the lack of uniformity, and
In other words, we’re moving away from have to be implemented once. Even if the recurring problems of comprehen-
dependence on interfaces that would the Machine Vision service provider sion that result between separate dis-
otherwise have a limiting effect, and is changed, the agreed standard will ciplines: the Machine Vision integrator
the result is completely new oppor- ensure problem-free integration into and its customer. Having a mutually
tunities built around information, ac- existing infrastructures. We’re there- agreed understanding about how and,
cessible transmission and meaningful fore moving to a completely new lev- particularly, when the right question
use. Taken together, these will not only el in terms of machine and system can be put to a Machine Vision device,
consolidate the status of Machine Vi- scalability. is a huge relief in terms of building up
sion on the market, but will also help to stable and secure communication be-
expand it. The benefits and the specific work on tween this device and, for example,
Industrie 4.0 outweigh these costs a PLC, Manufacturing Execution Sys-
What does this mean for your many times over. It’s also a question of tem (MES), etc. The importance of
customers? the future viability of companies. solving this problem should not be
Heinol-Heikkinen: OPC UA gives us underestimated.
end-to-end networking, and thanks to What examples are currently
the Companion Specifications we have available to show the impact of the What are the scenarios that OPC UA
the semantic self-description of all par- Companion Specs on the integration will enable for your customers
ticipants in the process. That changes of Vision Technology into production in future?
everything, since instead of rigidly per- process automation? Heinol-Heikkinen: In future, OPC UA
forming an established task, the main Heinol-Heikkinen: To put Vision Tech- will be a tool that can be used to greatly
focus is now on flexibility and changea- nology to use in the production pro- simplify and automate the entire ser-
bility. That represents a paradigm shift, cess, we first specified the generic vice process of our ASENTICS VARIO
©: ASENTICS
Besides the OPC Companion Specifications (VDMA 40100), fully automatic Machine Vision System for robot vision applications uses the OPC UA
inspection machine also use additional OPC UA partial models for Companion Specifications (VDMA 40100).
communication, with ERP systems, for example.
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 17systems. Our inspection machines are technologies have an interest in inter- That means something’s “opening up”
acquiring a kind of awareness, since operability with a range of machines for all markets and all market players!
they have knowledge about when spe- and IT levels.
cific wearing parts need to be changed, What tips do you have for
they draw attention to the fact at an Examples – not only from the point of other companies?
early stage, communicate with the ERP view of vision technology – are remote Heinol-Heikkinen: It won’t work with-
system, or request the needed parts commissioning and remote service of out financial and human resources.
directly from us. systems. They provide valuable ser- Developing your own corporate per-
vices without physically visiting the spectives for the age of Industrie 4.0
For example, exchanging data be- factory. I believe such scenarios will can hardly be kept separate from de-
tween an MES and the Machine Vision receive an unimagined boost on ac- veloping your own technical I4.0 skills.
system to orchestrate a change of count of the limitations currently being ‘Get involved at an early stage’ is my
product or task for the Machine Vision imposed by the pandemic. answer as the owner of a technology
system and other participants using business that’s aiming for technologi-
centrally stored and managed data. The digital twin describes ways to do. cal leadership!
The idea is to transmit data during The digital twin will also make it possi-
or following every task to a different ble to gather an incredible amount of I’d like to make an appeal to those who
are involved with OPC UA, or even with
the creation of digital twins, but are not
committed as part of the appropriate
committees, and tend to work in isola-
tion in their own way for their own prod-
ucts: Industrie 4.0 communication is
probably the most powerful and mean-
ingful interface that we have ventured
on to date with standardisation as our
The interoperable digital goal. That can succeed only if we pro-
twin ‘Machine Vision ceed as part of a larger community.
System’ is developed from
the sum of all domain- Those of us working on these themes
specific partial models have to be ‘interoperable’ above all
(e.g. OPC UA Companion
else – and then perhaps our machines
©: ASENTICS
Specifications) under the
Asset Administration Shell. can be too!
www.asentics.de/en
device or another machine, and to gen- information throughout the entire life-
erate understanding and possibly even cycle of an asset, which will bring the
interaction in this way. In the process, end customer or – in other words – the
therefore, we are creating a further im- asset owner a huge benefit from a very
portant starting point for “machines different perspective. The great thing is
talking to each other”. that you can set the limits, and there-
fore the entire scope, yourself. Consid-
Which markets will open up in er, for example, just a single machine or
the process? an entire production line, or even the
Heinol-Heikkinen: Everything will re- whole factory. Each of these elements
volve around digitisation of the value can collect and supply vast amounts
chain. It must be possible to extract the of information, always with the aim of
essence from hardware for networking structuring your own value chain much
with software. All industrial sectors and more efficiently.
18 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRWumati – bringing OPC UA into the global use in
mechanical and plant engineering
The letters in umati stand for “Universal Machine Technology Interface”. It forms the framework for the
worldwide distribution of interface standards based on OPC UA in mechanical and plant engineering.
benefit of the industry and its custom-
ers, the participating partners collec-
tively commit to a practicable way of
ensuring the standards are uniformly
implemented in their products. The
result is that customers can connect
©: umati
their machines to their individual IT
ecosystems in the easiest way possible.
umati – a strong community for manufacturers and users. In turn, this makes it easier to derive
added value from the use of data.
There are many different OPC UA spe- duction Language”. umati is the global umati is jointly funded by the VDMA
cifications, depending on the type of brand and community to spread the (the Mechanical and plant Engineering
machine and field of application. From standards. Association) and VDW (the German
a technological perspective, this makes Machine Tool Builders’ Association).
sense, since different technologies The goal pursued by umati is to have Heads of production around the world
have different needs when it comes machines of all kinds networked in a must be able to have the confidence
to data sharing. But in their business- standardised form, data that can be that machines from widely differing
es, the users of machines and plant – used to suit the customer’s wishes, and manufacturers will speak the same
manufacturing companies, in other standards distributed in a way that en- language and can put the aim of umati
words – use their own individual as- sures international compatibility. – Connecting the World of Machinery –
semblage of machines, plant, com- into practice.
ponents and IT systems from various Efforts in this direction go beyond just
manufacturers. That’s why it’s neces- standardisation work. The partners
sary to coordinate the implementation working on umati all commit to the prin- Andreas Faath
of the various OPC UA specifications ciple of “Connectivity – easy, secure Head Industrial Interoperability
VDMA e. V.
and to standardise them as much as and seamless”. Since umati is an initia-
Frankfurt
possible. That’s the only way to put in tive by the mechanical engineering and vdma.org/opcua
place a comprehensive “Global Pro- plant construction industry for the
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 19Networking machine tools in
production using umati
Networking and data collection in production are important tools for identifying potentials
for improvement. This is where umati helps, by providing a basis for presenting data from
machine tools in production in standardised form via an OPC UA server and for accessing
and evaluating it using data collection tools.
Concept for collecting data
©: ELHA-MASCHINENBAU Liemke KG
from different machine tools in
production using umati.
To collect data from machine tools in face to internal data, while others have In addition, the machine tools con-
production, ELHA-MASCHINENBAU controllers that present their data via structed by ELHA-MASCHINENBAU
Liemke KG is fitting its machines with OPC UA using manufacturer-specific are equipped with an umati interface,
an OPC UA server which makes the information models. To enable the data enabling them to be connected to the
data available via umati. Its fleet of ma- from these machines to be collected in data collection system during the com-
chines comes in various types: some standardised form, it must be present- missioning stage.
operate using controllers with no inter- ed using the umati information model.
20 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRWBecause of the different conditions Concept 3: umati interface server containing umati information
applying in different cases, three differ- integrated in machine controller models. If a machine has access to the
ent concepts have been developed for For machine tools manufactured by machine controller data, the variables
making the umati interface available, ELHA-MASCHINENBAU, the data for in the umati information model can be
each suitable for a specific group of providing umati is determined directly presented in full. The dashboards pro-
machine tools. in the control. The umati information vide a good overview of production and
model is made available on the OPC UA potentials for improvement in produc-
Concept 1: umati without machine server of the controller in the machine tion orders can be identified. Improving
controller data tool. Production, monitoring, alarm the organisation of production orders
If it is not possible to read data from the and warning data is all made available can increase production efficiency, for
machine tool controller, the production under this concept. example. Also during the commission-
status of the machine is determined ing stage of self-made machine tools,
by measuring the power consumed The machines with umati are connect- progress with commissioning can be
by the machine tool. For this purpose, ed to the production network. To collect made clearly visible via dashboards.
current transformers are installed in the data from umati, a cloud computer
the feed line which are evaluated by a with the IIoT data collection software In the future, additional data-based
programmable logic controller (PLC). from ELHA-MASCHINENBAU is inte- analyses will be able to identify poten-
The PLC calculates the power taken grated into the network. The OPC UA tials for improvement, thus enhancing
up and uses the result to calculate the client software is connected to the the production process as a whole. It
production status. Additional machine OPC UA servers in the individual ma- will also be possible to connect ma-
data, such as the condition of the warn- chine tools and can access the umati chines to the ERP system to link order
ing light, can be collected via the digital data. Once the connection to the ma- and production data using the stand-
inputs of the PLC. The data is made chine has been established, the software ardised umati information models.
available in the umati information mod- checks which data is provided via the
el via the OPC UA server of the PLC. machine’s umati information model
and then stores it on a cyclical basis Henrik Stratmann
Concept 2: umati with machine in an SQL database. Web-based dash- Manager Development Digital Services
ELHA-MASCHINENBAU Liemke KG
controller data boards make the recorded data acces- Hövelhof
If data from the machine tool control- sible in easy-to-follow diagram form. www.elha.de
ler is available via OPC UA, this will be
collected via an OPC UA client. The col- Dashboards provide an overview
lected data will be used to determine The three concepts described above
which data is needed to create a com- enable all machines in the production
prehensive interface. This data is made unit to be connected to the data col-
available in the umati information mod- lection system, which means the dash-
el via an OPC UA server. In addition to boards hold extensive production infor-
the production data, other data from mation. The advantage of evaluating
individual channels and spindles, and the power taken up is that production
alarms and warnings from the control- status can be determined even for older
ler, can be made available via the umati machines without a modern controller,
information model. and these can be fitted with an OPC UA
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 21OPC UA as a key success factor
in new product development
Digitalisation presents a plethora of new challenges in the development of new products.
The conventional mechanical engineer must step out of his familiar territory and enter uncharted
waters. He has to evolve from mechanical engineer to process optimiser.
©: Heinrich Georg GmbH
In addition to current
machine status, the
Georg dashboard’s plant
overview shows the key
figures and machine
conditions for the last
24 hours. Users can
quickly customise the
display to their particular
needs using filter and
sorting options.
The specialist for solutions in coil pro- Fresh thinking on product Many other considerations will follow,
cessing and machine tool manufacture, development processes including the question of whether the
Heinrich Georg GmbH Maschinenfab- The paradigm shift from product to effort and expense would actually
rik, is meeting this challenge head-on process also leaves its mark on the pay off.
and is actively lending direction to the development process. The perspective
transformation from mechanical en- needs to change; innovators need to Speed up efficiency and
gineer to process optimiser. Among put on their ‘data glasses’ and use them time-to-market
other things, the company is currently to look at the following questions: Standards help to significantly reduce
developing a dashboard that focuses time, effort and costs. Instead of talking
on increasing the productivity of its What additional data would to customers about technical aspects
own customers. In addition, the new enable us to optimally structure of various interfaces, the focus can be
(roll grinding machine) control equip- our process? placed on content. This enables effi-
ment offers the highest degree of cient development.
interconnectivity and interoperability What systems can provide us with
thanks to its seamless integration into this data, and how do we get access The establishment of a communica-
the system environment. to the data we need? tion standard that specifies not only
the technology but also the content
This is made possible through consist- How can we enhance the data with facilitates and accelerates market
ent use of communication standards the knowledge from our process access. Georg is benefiting from this
such as OPC UA. and redistribute it? advantage in the development of its
22 INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW©: Heinrich Georg GmbH
used, creating the next ‘brownfield’.
New barriers are thrown up and this
impedes straightforward market ac-
cess for external data-driven solutions.
Featuring the very latest OPC UA technology, the advanced Georg smartcontrol Innovations are thwarted.
ug milling machine control system is set to meet the challenges of the future.
Georg also routinely faces the challenge
of accessing data from proprietary sys-
own web-based dashboard. Umati is a to which extensions are then added for tems, or making such data available.
crucial core of the database applica- the specific application and the specific Often, the cost or the complexity of
tion. The umati system provided access machine. Georg also integrates parts of interface integration is so high that a
to a sound data framework and infor- this standard in product areas outside project simply can’t be implemented,
mation model developed by experts, machine tool industry, creating the or can only be implemented in part. Es-
thereby accelerating development. basis for connecting its dashboard to pecially with small tools, the added val-
all Georg machines and systems. This ue for the customer is devoured by the
By consulting a broad base of stake- includes, among other things, slitting, outlay for data collection and provision.
holders and modelling the resultant cut-to-length and multi-blanking lines,
findings into a description of use cas- as well as machinery and equipment Open standards such as OPC UA and
es and requirements, umati reduces relating to transformer industry. umati can significantly reduce these
the effort and outlay for requirements barriers, and thus enable customer
engineering. The necessary reduction In addition, umati gives companies added value.
and abstraction of these requirements like Georg easy market access outside
is also achieved, with the definition of their own field of machine technology. Shaping the future together
the parameters to be transmitted. Fur- Any umati-enabled machine can be Successful development of new prod-
thermore, umati’s existing information connected to the dashboard via plug ucts calls for collaboration, because
model covers a certain volume of not & play. Customers benefit from the the transformation from mechanical
insignificant preparatory work on sys- straightforward and rapid integration engineer to process optimiser involves
tem architecture, as well as its imple- of their umati-enabled machines. much more than just your own machine
mentation. This facilitated the genera- technology. It requires active intercon-
tion of important basics for the Georg Enabler for new business models necting and cooperation. Open stand-
dashboard, allowing the developers to All too often in this day and age, new ards form the common foundation,
focus more fully on the machine-spe- ideas or business models fail because making a significant contribution to
cific added value. of a lack of data access. Brownfield is future innovations.
the norm. Many companies have rec-
umati’s emphasis on developing a ognised this problem and have already
standard for all machine tools also resolved it to some extent, for their own Dr Matthias Wennemer
broadens Georg’s own horizon and purposes at least. The factory is fully Head of GEORGinnovation
Heinrich Georg GmbH
thus enhances product quality. And interconnected throughout. Due to a
Kreuztal
customers retain their machine-specif- lack of established standards, how- www.georg.com
ic individuality; umati forms the basis ever, proprietary systems are often
INNOVATIONS MADE IN NRW 23You can also read
