background
Machine to enterprise communication is a challenge, especially for the chemical and gas industries who have legacy, mission critical systems that must be maintained.
Challenge
Technotects selected OPC UA to support communication on their Windows CE based real-time embedded controllers, however were looking for faster time to market.
solution
Technotects partnered with RTA using their OPC UA Server Stack, and their industry expertise to make their stack work with Windows CE, improving the speed to market.
We love being able to help our customers throughout implementation and beyond. It’s just a bonus to have some of the most innovative products in our industry that help keep plants, factories and other facilities running.
Meeting demanding challenges at scale for machine to enterprise communication is a challenge faced in many industries. It is even more demanding in chemicals and gas where communication with a huge base of legacy, mission critical systems must be maintained.
Recently, Technotects, an industrial IoT Edge software engineering company in Philadelphia, successfully deployed a fully compliant OPC UA based system for a Fortune 500 industrial gas and chemical delivery equipment manufacturer.
Technotects selected OPC UA to support communication on their Windows CE based real-time embedded controllers, as well as the Windows 10-based simulators, because it’s:
- Very Popular – Wide acceptance and interoperability in the industrial automation marketplace
- Intuitive Data – Comprehensive information modeling for self-defining complex data
- Plug-and-Play – Extensibility to add new features without affecting existing applications
- Ultra-Secure – Device-level security such as certificate-based encryption/authentication and access-permission granularity
- Enhanced Performance – Efficient subscriptions to OPC UA client specific data changes
- Open Control – Methods capability allowing OPC UA clients to execute operations
- Multiple OS Support – Platform independence scaling small to large systems with support from a multitude of RTOS, including Linux, VxWorks and Win10 IoT
To enable faster time to market, the OPC UA Server Stack from Real Time Automation was selected for its US-based support, simplicity, feature-richness and security. Additionally, RTA had the innate background to understand the industrial automation needs and the knowledge, willingness, tenacity to make their stack work with Windows CE, including the SSL library.
Real Time Automation’s OPC UA Server Stack is the perfect solution for many platforms. There are no hardware dependencies, no RTOS dependencies, and no difficult integration tasks. You can use any development environment (100% ANS C Source Code) and it supports any Berkley Sockets-type TCP/IP Stack.
The RTA OPC UA royalty-free source code stack is a single task solution for OPC UA. It has an incredibly straight forward, easy to understand API that makes integration of OPC UA into your device almost effortless. You also receive support from the engineers that use the code every day in real OPC UA products.
Taking advantage of the new OPC UA server functionality within the industrial gas and chemical controllers, Technotects is now developing a mobile device-based Quick Response Collaboration App to maximize equipment uptime with less human effort.
Utilizing OPC UA secure connectivity, Microsoft Azure IoT and Push notifications, the Social media-like app communicates with hundreds of controllers and features live messaging between technicians, with embedded alarm and operational data views for the purpose of speeding up recovery and reducing unplanned downtime, anywhere, any time. The controller’s OPC UA server with enhanced data availability will help maximize reliability and uptime for lower cost of ownership while providing customers with valuable process data analytics and resilience from cyberattack.
If you’re looking for a solution that is simple, flexible, open and standard protocol to move data between your factory floor or building automation device, then you need an OPC UA Server Stack from Real Time Automation.
