In production processes, the OPC standard provides coverage and supports industrial automation.
The OPC Standard’s primary objective is to ensure that both production and business systems can operate together.
It provides business and production applications across the entire manufacturing enterprise with access to real-time plant information, making multi-vendor interoperability and “plug-and-play” connectivity a reality.
OPC breaks down the barriers between devices, systems, and other traditionally proprietary factory automation software.
It also offers additional business benefits in the form of greater flexibility and reduced costs for the integration, development, and installation of factory automation and process control systems.
OPC is here and can help users solve real-world manufacturing problems today.
Today, the OPC standard is essential in industrial automation projects because:
- The OPC standard has gained worldwide acceptance, achieving its goals of ease of use, interoperability, and openness around the world.
- The growing list of OPC-compatible products continues to expand, facilitating the exchange of information between different automation devices.
- Compatibility with instrumentation, graphical programming, monitoring and control modules, data logging, and process control applications, among others.
What technology is behind the OPC standard?
It is based on the Component Object Model (COM) and is part of the Microsoft .NET Framework®. OPC
It uses the Microsoft .NET Framework to provide “plug-and-play” connectivity and interoperability between disparate devices, systems, and automation software, both on the factory floor and throughout the manufacturing enterprise.
In summary, Microsoft’s COM specification provides the necessary software infrastructure that defines how applications share data on Microsoft operating systems.
