Cranes and Hoists

Scope / Goals

The working group was established in 2018 with the aim of developing a common, usable, future-proof interface for cranes and hoists with a focus on industrial applications.
For that it develops standardized OPC UA information models (the OPC 40020 series) which are based on OPC 40010 Robotics.
These models can be used to describe all current and future crane and hoist systems, such as: Bridge cranes, gantry cranes, light crane systems, several control units and load attachments or other peripheral devices, which do not have their own OPC UA server.

The group is organized by VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics with support from the OPC Foundation. Over the last years, the core working group of this initiative, a group of experts from 15 companies, have developed Part 1 of the VDMA OPC Cranes & Hoists Companion Specification.

Use Cases

Part 1 (OPC 40020-1) covers these use cases:

• Supervision: With the data provided, the crane or hoist system can be supervised and monitored. Functional analysis of individual crane systems within the factory ground is possible.
• Condition monitoring offers the possibility to determine the condition of machinery while in operation. This is a major component of predictive maintenance.
• Asset management: The Specification provides detailed information of the main electrical and mechanical parts.
• Limitation from external system: The companion specification for cranes provides an interface for requesting limitations to the operation of the crane making the crane operating area safer.

Ongoing work

Ongoing work for Part 2 and extending Part 1:

• Inclusion of KPIs (e.g. total number of cycles, average load moved during the cycles, cumulative displacement, based on ISO 12482, ISO 4301)
• Geometric Measurement System
• Energy Consumption
• Accuracy Domain