Profibus International has announced that it is joining the Open DeviceNet Vendor Association, ControlNet International, and Fieldbus Foundation in supporting OPC initiative for ethernet
Profibus International has announced its support for a new OPC standard that allows data exchange between controllers from different system suppliers via industrial ethernet TCP/IP protocol.
This new specification will enable data exchange and plant-wide configuration among different systems in a multi-vendor plant.
OPC DX is application independent and is suitable for both factory and process automation.
Emerson Process Management, Rockwell Automation and Siemens are among the vendors participating in the OPC working group to develop this standard. After final review, the specification and sample code for OPC DX will be available, planned for fourth quarter of 2001.
The first multi-vendor application will be presented at Hanover Fair 2002 and at other global tradeshow venues.
Products are planned to be ready in the third quarter 2002.
Tom Burke, president of the OPC Foundation, stated that existing technologies developed around OPC standards in recent years made agreement on the DX specification much simpler to reach.
The OPC DX initiative originated after some of the largest member companies of the participating organisations broached the subject, according to Edgar Kuester, chairman of Profibus International.
"Major manufacturers were telling us that data exchange on production lines or individual machines was becoming extremely complex because it was increasingly common to have systems from different vendors working in tandem," said Kuester.
"What they wanted was a common interface for system configuration using existing standards wherever possible.
Because of its broad acceptance in the marketplace, an OPC solution became the obvious choice." Helmut Gierse, president of Siemens Automation and Drives, said "The OPC DX protocol represents a major contribution to international standardisation in industrial automation.
As a market leader we are committed to supporting and shaping such open solutions.
From the middle of 2002 we will offer important key products with OPC DX functionality." The OPC working group was charged with creating the OPC DX specification, creating sample code and creating test-compliance code.
Once approved, the DX specification will be offered to all interested control vendors.
OPC DX provides new opportunities for Profinet.
As an open system, Profinet specifies procedures for run time and engineering data exchange within a Profinet system and the underlying fieldbuses.
OPC DX provides an additional open data transfer between Profinet and other Ethernet based communication systems.
Leading system suppliers of Profibus and Profinet products, such as ABB, Bosch-Rexroth, Moeller and Siemens, declared their readiness to start development of products containing OPC DX functionality.
The use of an extended OPC interface to harmonise and interconnect the different protocols of the different fieldbus organisations will fit well in the industrial IT architecture.
