With the draft of the new OPC 40079 specification, the Joint Working Group of EUROMAP and OPC Foundation has published an Industry 4.0-compatible interface with an extended range of functions and thus the successor standard to EUROMAP 67.
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EUROMAP: Draft OPC 40079 published
'collisions can be avoided and cycle times optimised'
With the change to a software-based interface based on OPC UA, modern injection moulding machines with more complex moulds, extended information on parts tracking and quality as well as more precise co-ordination of positions can now be modelled. Furthermore, the specification offers additional functions such as simple operator login on both machines and the exchange of programs. Real-time communication to coordinate the movements of the injection moulding machine and robot in such a way that collisions can be avoided and cycle times optimised without unnecessary buffer times is ensured via OPC UA's publisher-subscriber mechanism.
The safety signals for emergency stop and protective devices remain outside the OPC UA interface. For this purpose, the draft of EUROMAP 81 was published in parallel as a reduced hardware connection.The working group, led by Dr Harald Weber from VDMA Plastics and Rubber Machinery, had already started developing the information model in 2015. It was always important to the group that machine operators could easily integrate and use the specification.
Publishing the specification at the draft stage gives all interested parties the opportunity to view and comment on the standard before it is finalised.
The OPC UA specifications published for plastics and rubber machinery can be found on https://www.euromap.org/i40; https://opcfoundation.org/; and https://www.vdma.org/opc-ua.