The further development towards Industry 4.0 can be observed worldwide – this also opens up a wide range of opportunities for your project
Due to a large number of distributors, inray is excellently connected internationally. Therefore, the OPC Router finds its place in various industrial sectors and supports them with its flexible application possibilities. Some examples will be presented in the following blog.
Increase the Database performance in the textile and fabrics sector
Taiwan
The OPC Router is used in the Taiwanese textile industry to manage data from over 200 smart power meters. For this purpose, the data is transferred and stored from an OPC Sever in Mongo DB. This allows the electrical power status to be easily managed.
Since using the OPC Router for this use case, the customer has been able to increase Database performance by converting OPC data into JSON format.
For further information contact our partner OneYear Software in Taiwan!
Track all process activities in the automotive and mobility sector
Poland
The main target of this project in the Polish automotive industry was to create a solution which based on the OPC Router and communication with the Simatic S7 PLC, will respectively allow or deny the entrance to a basket containing the material for a machine using barcode scanners. After scanning the barcode which is printed on the basket and comparing it with the orders currently logged in the MES (MPDV Hydra), they prevent loading the wrong material. All loading attempts are additionally archived which allows for traceability of the process.
The project also included the delivery and assembly of simple electrical cabinets with barcode scanners supported by the OPC Router (Zebra). Simple lamps can inform the operator about the system status (connectivity with the database). The possibility of loading information about incorrect order and a key ignition switch with allows to bypass “system logic” in case of its failure or machine conversion to another order.System integration, depending on the machine, is performed by modifying the machine’s control program (S7-300) or by a physical barrier (ex parking gate) that prevents loading with a forklift (parking gate control – Siemens Logo – OPC with S7 protocol – OPC Router).
The OPC Router is the “brain of the operation” – it receives the barcode, runs queries for orders in the MS SQL database, makes the decision to allow the loading and sends it to the OPC Server, collecting the necessary data for traceability.
The OPC Router also prepares reports in Excel sheets from the collected data and sends these via SMB directly to the computers of supervisors of the process.
For further information contact our partner INEE in Poland!
South Africa
A global automotive manufacturer based in South Africa uses the OPC Routers to control the path of its vehicles through the paint shop.
For further information contact our partner AcuSYS in South Africa!
Turkey
The OPC Router is used by an automotive supplier to transmit production data in real time from the OPC servers to the label printers on the production line. In addition, the collected data is stored in an SQL database.
By using the OPC Router in this use case, the customer has been able to increase productivity by reducing labelling problems and increasing production awareness through historical data collection.
For further information contact our partner ASP in Turkey!
Turkey
The OPC Router is used by an automotive supplier to collect real-time production data from its OPC servers and send this data to its MES solution to monitor the production line. In addition, this data is stored on the SQL server for historical data collection. There is also the ability to merge production order information and real-time data on OPC Router, and then send this merged data to Power BI via REST.
Using OPC Router for these use cases has given the customer better visibility of the production site and better visualisation for reporting this merged data.
For further information contact our partner ASP in Turkey!
Automate digital communication process in the food and beverage sector
Austria
At a large and market leading manufacturer in the Austrian food industry, production data from various S7 controllers is retrieved via an OPC UA Server and used by means of the OPC Router to connect to the merchandise management system. At the same time, production data is stored by the OPC Router in an SQL database. This communication process has thus been fully automated.
For further information contact our partner pro-SCADA in Austria!
Belgium
A producer of nutrition food additives is using the OPC Router to connect the barcode readers and weighing scales to record ingredient usage.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Belgium!
Spain
A company that manufactures dairy products (food) uses the OPC Router to collect information from an OPC server, manage its redundancy and supply its PI systems (Historian database). With the OPC Router, the company is now able to improve/change its data analysis systems without having to change the way it extracts data from the process.
For further information contact our partner Logitek in Spain!
Switzerland
A manufacturer in the food industry manages their whole production process by using the OPC Router. They are connecting their data sources (e. g. Kepware OPC Server, printers, scales, camera systems, XML-files) directly to SAP, where the data is used for production automation via a SAP-based MES.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Switzerland!
Use the OPC Router as a data hub in the chemichal and pharmaceutical sector
Taiwan
A Taiwan customer in plastics and petrochemical industry is collecting data from an OPC Server and transferring it to MongoDB for data analysis.
For further information contact our partner OneYear Software in Taiwan!
Austria
In several facilities of an Austrian company from the chemical industry, the OPC Router is used as a data hub in production. The data is fetched from production via OPC UA and, depending on the production site, the Plug-ins for RESTful, InfluxDB, SAP and various printers are used.
For further information contact our partner pro-SCADA in Austria!
Slovenia
A Slovenian customer in the chemical industry needed traceability and quality control for their product. The production process had been established for years, but it lacked traceability – it became apparent from time to time that the final product did not meet the customer’s quality requirements, and there was no way to trace the point of failure or the origin of the insufficient product quality. In cooperation with the specialists for the production process, the most important measuring point was determined, which must be recorded, evaluated and archived. In this way, preventive warnings can be triggered as well as traceability ensured. The data source for these key measuring points was a PLC, which led to the decision to archive the data in an SQL database. Web-based reports were created for the user interface. Everything was clear except for the question of how to transfer the data from the PLC to the SQL database. Some kind of middleware was needed, and that’s where the OPC Router came in handy. In this case, the OPC-UA Client Plug-in was used as the data source and trigger, with the MS SQL Server Plug-in as the destination.
The configuration of the OPC Router is quite simple: most things are done through the graphical user interface, where predefined interfaces can be dragged and dropped. Parameters can be set and connected to each other. Overall, it can be said that the user interface is quite intuitive and provides a good user experience.
When we decided on middleware, we did not only focus on the specific use case but also wanted a solution that would cover different use cases in the future, especially different vendors, protocols, data sources and storage in general – and here we found the OPC Router to be the most flexible solution on the market.
For further information contact our partner RBT Technologies in Slovenia!
Singapore
The OPC Router is used by a global manufacturer of specialised polymer materials in Singapore. Its products include thermoplastic compounds, dyes and additives for plastics, thermoplastic resins and vinyl resins. The OPC Router enables communication with an RFID system and logs the collected information on the customer’s Postgres database server.
By using the OPC Router, the customer is able to manage their data streams in real-time. With the success of this implementation, this solution will be extended to other plants in the region.
For further information contact our partner Allied Solutions in Singapore!
Brazil
The OPC Router is used by a chemical company to exchange data with an Allen Bradley PLC via the KEPServerEX OPC Server, whereby the data is transferred to an MS SQL Server database and stored there. The MS SQL Server database stores recipes that need to be sent to the PLC on demand. With the OPC Router, they were able to handle this data exchange without any problems.
For further information contact our partner Exata in Brazil!
Japan
Using the OPC Router, a carbon materials company transfers data between Mitsubishi PLCs, Smart Meters, MySQL, MS Excel, GE SCADA, Historian, and IoT Data Platform. The OPC Router REST Plug-in is used for transferring data to the GE IoT Platform.
Now the customer can see the full plant status, such as production data, energy consumption/demand, control data, alarms and events, historical data and trends by a web browser, smart devices within their VPN network, etc.
The customer is expanding the system to their other plants.
For further information contact our partner K-LEC in Japan!
Collect data automatically in the metals and mining industry
Austria
A company from the steel / sheet metal production sector in Austria uses the OPC Router to synchronize data for a new production line with an SQL database. After this has been successfully implemented, the OPC Router will take on additional tasks in the coming months and become the central data hub in the company.
For further information contact our partner pro-SCADA in Austria!
Austria
A manufacturer of steel and stainless steel profiles based in Austria uses the OPC Router in a redundant configuration that connects the production with SAP. This setup is now also adopted in a newly established production site.
For further information contact our partner pro-SCADA in Austria!
Sweden
The OPC Router is used in a Swedish metal industry company to collect production data from PLCs and store it in an MS SQL Server for further use in the QA department. By using this system, the QA department now has real-time data to work with compared to before when the data was manually collected.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Sweden!
Spain
A company that produces forged parts by stamping, electro upsetting and extrusion uses the OPC Router to collect information from an OPC server and publish it via MQTT. With the OPC Router, the process data is now easily accessible to other systems.
For further information contact our partner Logitek in Spain!
Brazil
The OPC Router is used by a mining company to transfer data from Allen Bradley PLCs to SCADA software. The company successfully uses this system at five sites. The data is read from the controllers by KEPServerEX and sent to the OPC Router via OPC UA. In the OPC Router, the data is processed with the help of a script and transferred into JSON objects. The JSON objects are sent to the SCADA software via the REST Plug-in.
For further information contact our partner Exata in Brazil!
Reduce time and costs in day-to-day business in the printing and packaging sector
Netherlands
Dutch producer of special food foil is using the OPC Router to connect the barcode readers and printers on the shop floor with their central MES.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in the Netherlands!
Belgium
A Global manufacturer of beverage packaging uses the OPC Router to download order information to the MES as well as pick up triggers from the shop floor and send these to the Historian.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Belgium!
China
A company in the printing and packaging industry uses the OPC Router to connect to an OPC UA server via its OPC Client Plug-in, convert the data into JSON format and send it to a MongoDB.
The use case behind this is to retrieve real-time operational data to send to the customer’s MES and analysis system.
The customer values the ease of use of the OPC Router. By using the JSON format, they improve the performance of their database system and increase the quality of their plant maintenance and troubleshooting. Furthermore, the recording of process parameters provides a solid data basis for analysing, improving and assuring print quality.
For further information contact our partner MESTime in China!
USA
A manufacturer of medical films needed to integrate a scale into SAP. With the OPC Router OPC Client and the native SAP Plug-in, the systems could be integrated quickly, eliminating manual data transfer and saving the expected integration time.
For further information contact our partner Software Toolbox in the USA!
User-friendly interface in the pulp and paper sector
Finland
In pulp & paper manufacturing, the OPC Router provides easy integration between production systems by receiving webhooks from ERP and transferring those onwards into the IIoT platform. The integration enables to enrich ERP functionality in a simple and user-friendly way.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Finland!
Turkey
A company in the paper industry uses a quality control system (QCS) on one server to obtain paper-related values (referring to the quality of the paper stock). In addition, a distributed control system (DCS) on another server is used to obtain process-related data (e.g. speed of the production line, temperature) and to successfully carry out the production process. Both systems have OPC DA servers and Kepware is used on both to convert data from OPC DA to OPC UA.
An OPC Router instance (with OPC UA Client Plug-in) is used on the QCS server to link the tags between QCS and DCS. Another OPC Router instance (with an additional MS SQL Server Plug-in) and inray’s Factory Application Server (FAS) are installed on another (third) server to collect and send all data to an MS SQL Server database. With the FAS, reports (daily, weekly, monthly) are generated according to the customer’s specifications and the related data and some calculations like OEE, availability, etc. are visualised on FAS screens.
For further information contact our partner ASP in Turkey!
USA
A manufacturer of speciality paper needed to integrate a new vision system for downloading inspection recipes from their HMI system. The HMI supported OPC DA, but the vision system required the use of OPC UA methods.
The OPC Router enabled the use of the existing OPC infrastructure, avoiding custom code and automating the setup of the inspection system during changeovers.
For further information contact our partner Software Toolbox in the USA!
Taiwan
A manufacturer of sticky notes is using OPC Router to forward important production data from an OPC Server via it’s OPC Client Plug-in and MQTT Plug-in to their MES and SCADA system for further analyzation and optimization of the production process by using AI.
For further information contact our partner OneYear Software in Taiwan!
Creating transparency in processes in the mechanical engineering sector
Austria
At a special machine manufacturer, the OPC Router is used to transfer data from different production and machine tools to the ERP system proAlpha. The connection of the systems is fully automated via different ways. Partly via OPC UA or also via the Network File Access Plug-in for the exchange of files.
For further information contact our partner pro-SCADA in Austria!
Finland
The OPC Router helps a pump manufacturer in Finland to efficiently integrate production planning data from the ERP into the automation system (PLCs) for further use. The OPC Router then reports the activity back to the ERP system.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Finland!
Germany
In production of a pump manufacturer, there are so-called recycling points in various areas. Depending on the production progress, different types of waste accumulate, which are collected in separate containers according to the type of waste. These specially marked containers are placed at permanently assigned storage locations. These bins are emptied in regular intervals via a separate route. The employee’s experience and the knowledge gained from the previous tour (route and sighting of full bins) are essentially the basis for the following tour. The goal of the project is to carry out the exchange of the waste containers according to demand, i.e. only after a request by the production area. The route leader will be supported digitally in the planning of the waste disposal route.
In order to indicate the need, IoT buttons are attached to the respective parking spaces, with the help of those buttons, the employee can request an emptying of the respective waste container on site.
Here, SpeedyPick software is run on a server to manage the buttons. This is coupled via websocket with a device for the OPC Router.
For further information contact us!
Italy
In a company that manufactures polyethylene pipes, the OPC Router has been used for two and a half years as a layer interface between SAP / 4 HANA and MES (Ignition) using SAP IDoc, SAP RFC and MS SQL Server. Several transactions have been configured between the two systems, from the transmission of item master data with all characteristics for each item, to the receipt of raw material and production orders, to the feedback of stock progress to SAP in the form of values for pieces produced, kg of product waste and material consumption for each order.
For further information contact our partner EFA in Italy!
China
A company specializing in medical device manufacturing used the OPC UA Client Plug-in of the OPC Router to read production and operational parameters from Siemens s7-1500 PLCs and then store them in an MS SQL Server database via the MS SQL Server Plug-in.
The client improved its production and operational quality by referring to the information listed below, including production efficiency information, product inspection records, operational records, and production error records, all of which are collected and stored in the MS SQL Server database.
For further information contact our partner MESTime in China!
Clearly organised in the logistics and distribution sector
Switzerland
A leading provider of integrated logistic systems / warehouses is connecting their PLCs and their SAP ERP-system to automatically handle their order management. On the PLC-side the OPC Router is connecting via OPC and the communication with SAP is IDoc-based.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Switzerland!
Optimise your processes in the building materials and components sector
Switzerland
A manufacturer of building access systems (including discrete manufacturing of hardware, locks and hinges) uses the OPC Router to exchange production order data between its ERP system (proALPHA) and its machines. The PLC-protocols are translated into OPC UA by Kepware’s OPC server. The OPC Router then transfers the data between the two systems via its OPC Client Plug-in and RESTful Web Services as a connection to the ERP.
For further information contact our partner Novotek in Switzerland!
USA
A building automation and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) provider uses OPC Router on the shop floor to transfer data from OPC servers to a robot fleet management application via REST APIs. The company also integrates other control applications using the ERP/SOAP Web Service Plug-in. The OPC Router is also used in the housing system’s demonstration lab.
By using the OPC Router, a fast, repeatable integration was achieved and writing custom applications was avoided.
For further information contact our partner Software Toolbox in the USA!
USA
A manufacturer of home products collects data from OPC servers and feeds it into InfluxDB. By using dynamic templates to configure state logic implemented with the OPC Router scripting language, the company was able to standardise the implementation of the OPC Router within and between plants. It also integrates RFID devices with the OPC Router’s OPC UA client Plug-in, serialises data into an MS SQL Server and uses the Plug-in for email notifications to inform engineers of problems. Finally, the implementation uses the native redundancy of the OPC Router for high availability.
By using the OPC Router, the automation goals were achieved without having to write custom code.
For further information contact our partner Software Toolbox in the USA!
USA
A manufacturer of building products uses the OPC Router to read barcode scanners and PLCs via OPC servers and then send the data to an MES via REST. It also logs some of the data from the OPC Router into Excel and uses the email Plug-in to generate notifications for system managers.
For further information contact our partner Software Toolbox in the USA!
Japan
The OPC Router is used by an insulating material manufacturing company to replace DCS historian with an InfluxDB, relaying over 10,000 data points every few seconds. The OPC Router is also used for transferring manufacturing plant data to their global MES on cloud by using the MQTT Plug-in.
The company is now well trained and can automate data transfer by itself. Due to their feedback, the work of 2 plant operators has been saved and can now be used to do other productive work at the factory.
For further information contact our partner K-LEC in Japan!
Minimise or avoid errors in the educational and administrative sector
Canada
A university is using the OPC Router to pull energy usage from university buildings via OPC Client and log it to InfluxDB. With over 80 connections, the OPC Router template capabilities help to reduce configuration time and the C# scripting engine to achieve specific needs, leveraging the best of an off-the-shelf application and the flexibility of scripting in a standard language.
For further information contact our partner Software Toolbox in Canada!
More information about the OPC Router
OPC Router works as an universal translator for your systems. It enables the communication
of all existing systems and protocols and can help modernize processes in the long term. Our video explains how OPC Router works, how it can be integrated into your system environment and what advantages it offers your company.
OPC Router is multifunctional and very easy to use. Connections are created simply by drag & drop and numerous Plug-ins enable the connection of a wide variety of applications and systems. Read more details about the advantages of OPC Router and how you can achieve an automated data exchange and thus the optimization of your processes.
Getting started with OPC Router is easy and can be done quickly. Our video shows you which elements are important and how you can connect different automation systems via drag & drop with suitable Plug-ins.