OPC technology is currently installed in over 17 million machines and factories around the world. These case studies span several industries and highlight the real-world savings and benefits from using OPC technology.
Note: The views expressed in these documents do not necessarily reflect the views of the OPC Foundation.
 AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE INTEGRATES |
OPC UA IN RESEARCH ROCKET TEXUS
TEXUS OPC UA Support Specification for Optimized Data Management Airbus Defense and Space, a division of the European Airbus Group, has been using OPC UA since 2017. ‘Technological Experiments in Zero Gravity’, or TEXUS for short, benefits extensively from OPC UA. The entire data management and secure and seamless communication is optimized both during the rocket flight and afterwards. Both the flight software on board the rocket and all ground systems communicate via OPC UA. The specially developed |
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 FACTORY Automation |
DELIVERING A SMOKE-FREE FUTURE
To speed up data exchange across the industry, leading international tobacco products manufacturers, including PMI, and the OPC Foundation formed a working group. Together, they created the companion specification “Tobacco Machine Communication” (TMC), version 1.0 in 2017. The latest version of TMC (version 2.0) has been available since June 2022 after incorporating the learnings of applying the specification in a manufacturing environment. |
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 Food production |
OPC UA in world of food production
The Swiss machinery manufacturer Bühler plays a crucial role in meeting the basic food and mobility needs of two billion people. This is because a large proportion of the machines used in food production and die casting |
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 SOLAR Energy |
OPC UA in world largest solar park
The Norwegian systems integrator Prediktor is a leading provider of asset management and real-time data management solutions to renewable- and energy asset owners. It is also a global technology leader in OPC and OPC |
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 Mechanical Engineering |
DATA COMMUNICATION WITH OPC UA IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Rosendahl Nextrom develops and manufactures equipment for the global cable, fiber optics and battery industry. The company is part of the KNILL GROUP, an Austrian group focused on industrial manufacturing. It supplies production technologies for battery machines (BM-Rosendahl), machines for the production of cable, wire and shocktubes (Rosendahl), as well as fiber optics |
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 Modelling Factory Automation |
MIELE’S BUSINESS UNIT LAUNDRY OPTIMIZES THE PRODUCTION OF WASHING MACHINES WITH OPC UA
Miele is the world’s leading supplier of premium domestic appliances. These include the product segments cooking, baking, steam cooking, refrigeration and freezing, coffee preparation, dishwashing, laundry and floorcare. In addition, there are dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers for commercial use, as well as cleaning, disinfection and sterilization equipment for medical facilities and Laboratories. |
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 Cloud / Modelling Process Industry |
Strategies for data-driven digital transformation in the plant
Equinor is a broad energy company of 21,000 colleagues committed to turning natural resources into energy in more than 30 countries worldwide. As the largest operator in Norway and international leader in offshore operations and renewable energy, Equinor is shaping the future of energy. |
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 Cloud / Modelling Factory Automation |
Digital Transformation at Groupe Renault
Groupe Renault’s plan is to implement the use of OPC UA-enabled devices and equipment at all production sites worldwide, and to implement end-to-end data communication from the |
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| Transportation | Standardized Communication Structures in Detection Systems of Deutsche Bahn
The system DBMAS (DB-Meldeanlagensystem) is a new standardized solution for remotely controlling and monitoring alarm systems and further operationally relevant infrastructural facilities which has been called for tenders by DB AG in 2009. Facilities to be connected include amongst others hot box detection systems in the track area, wind sensor systems on bridges and dams, and safety devices of railway tunnels. |
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| Automotive | Seamless Data Exchange via OPC-UA. Implementation of Product Control in a World-wide Network of Plants
With the industry-wide trend towards horizontal and vertical integration, intelligence is moving from the supervisory control systems to the local components. This development is leading to a growing need for communication for which the open OPC-UA standard provides an ideal solution because it can also be used for embedded devices. Softing’s embedded OPC-UA server gateway echocollect UA links the control world with the IT world and provides access to process, manufacturing and quality data in more than 50 different controller types. |
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| Chemical Manufacturing | OWL PERIMETER DEFENSE SOLUTION (OPDS) – INSTALLATION AT SAFCO Saudi Arabian Fertilizer
Company(SAFCO), a division of Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation’s (SABIC), produces, processes, manufactures, and markets the principal fertilizers found in local and international markets. |
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| Energy Monitoring | Embedded PC as a distributed data logger with OPC UA connection to the cloud
For optimal energy management of municipal buildings, it is necessary to be as informed as possible via rapid-response energy monitoring systems to report consumption of water, electricity and heat. The region around the city of Aachen, Germany, together with their premises management and the IT service provider regio iT has therefore introduced e2watch, which is based on advanced data logging technology from Beckhoff. |
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| Food and Beverage | OPC UA middleware enables highly flexible food production – Weber integrates OPC UA into Slicing Machines
Weber Maschinenbau GmbH produces groundbreaking systems to process, refine and slice sausages, meat, cheese and other food: Slicer, Food Robotics, and Skinner. Weber is world market leader in the field of Slicer technology, Its customers are amongst others large meat companies, dairy factories and system catering businesses. |
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| Oil & Gas | The Texas reputation for size comes with some mighty metrics to back it up. As the largest oil producer in the Union, the state’s wellheads are spread over 268,000 square miles. If you are in the oil and gas industry, on-site management and monitoring of land-based wells can be a logistical challenge as well as a considerable expense. The state boasts nearly one working oil or gas well for every square mile, each requiring stringent monitoring and reporting by the Railroad Commission of Texas, the governmental regulatory agency that oversees the state’s oil and gas industry. Read the case study… |
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| Oil & Gas | Neste Jacobs is the Nordic region’s leading provider of technology, engineering and project services for the oil and gas, biorefining, petrochemicals and chemicals industries, including also the utilities and life science sectors. Prosys OPC Services has worked with Neste Jacobs to add the new OPC UA communication protocol to Advanced Process Control system and real-time process database (Case 1). Prosys has also provided an extension to Neste Jacobs’ NAPCON® Simulator – a training simulator system with hard control and alarm switches. Integration of the switches was based on OPC UA, which guarantees reliable communication and easy connectivity, as well as supports future expansions of the systems (Case 2). Read Case 1… Read Case 2… |
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| Oil & Gas | Exchanging your control systems data outside of your network securely is possible!
The need to share process data between production sites, refinery, petrochemical, gas and utility plants has been increasing for the past decade.These plants and production sites are typically located in the same area and have the need to exchange feed stocks, naphtha, ethane and utilities streams such as hydrogen, electricity, water, steam, and fuel gas, which created the requirement to exchange data between their metering and control systems. |
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| Water Treatment | Intelligent Water Management with OPC UA Enabled Smart Devices
M2M Communication Based on PLCopen OPC UA Client Function Blocks Decentralized, independently acting embedded controllers can form an intelligent network for the control of potable water and waste water plants. OPC UA is the ideal technology to establish secure and standardized M2M interaction at these plants. |
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