| Charter |
Scope / Goals
Develop specifications for plastics and rubber machines in a production line and between the machines/devices and systems outside of the production cell (e.g MES or ERP software systems).
The basis is the industry branch– harmonized specification OPC 40083 – “General Types for Plastics and Rubber Machines,” which defines the Variables, Objects, Methods, and Data Types used across various machines in the plastics and rubber industry.
Building on this foundation, the joint working group develops machine type-specific Companion Specifications. These specifications cover a range of production machines, including injection molding machines, extruders, and particle foam machines, as well as peripheral devices such as temperature control units, material handling components, moulds, and both upstream and downstream equipment.
They facilitate both vertical communication (e.g., between machines and MES or SCADA systems) and horizontal communication (e.g., between machines and peripheral devices). Most specifications support simultaneous two-way communication, allowing production machines to control peripheral devices while these devices send operational data to a higher-level computer system.
USE CASES and information models
The Companion Specifications developed by the JWG Plastics and Rubber Machinery address similar use cases to ensure a consistent information model structure across the industry. The top-level information model typically includes:
- General information about the machines and components:
This section covers the machine state, operation mode, and identification parameters such as manufacturer and serial number. New Companion Specifications utilize the building blocks from OPC UA for Machinery (OPC 40001).
- Configuration information and settings:
Allows clients to view and modify the machine’s configuration parameters.
- Monitoring and control of process values:
Provides all relevant live process values, such as temperatures, pressures and forces, as well as summarized data of cyclic processes through OPC UA events. Process values can be controlled by writing the set value.
- Status and error information:
Simplifies error management for machines that do not support OPC UA alarms.
- Management of jobs and machine settings:
Covers information about the current job and jobs in preparation as well as job results from finished jobs.
- Maintenance:
Provides information about different maintenance activities, states, alarms for due maintenance, and methods to reset the maintenance interval.
- Energy consumption:
Provides current consumption, resettable intervals and total lifetime consumption.
Companion Specifications
- OPC 40083: OPC UA interfaces for plastics and rubber machinery – General Type definitions
This recommendation defines ObjectTypes which can be used for several plastics and rubber machines.
- OPC 40077: OPC UA interfaces for plastics and rubber machinery – Data exchange between injection moulding machines and MES
MES are used for collecting the information generated by IMM at a central point for easier quality assurance and job and dataset management. This assures a unique interface for IMM and MES from different manufacturers to ensure compatibility.
- OPC 40082 series: peripheral devices
The connection of production machines and peripherals within the production cell is of central importance for production efficiency and quality. So far, the series consists of 6 parts:
- 40082.1 – Temperature Control Devices (TCD)
- 40082.2 – Hot runner devices (HRD)
- 40082.3 – Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR) Dosing Systems
- 40082.4 – Dosing Systems
- 40082.5 – Moulds
- 40082.6 – Granulate Dryer Devices (Work in Progress)
The specifications standardize the communication from peripheral devices to the production machine (e.g. injection moulding machine, extruder) as well as to higher-level control systems (e.g. MES / SCADA). The specifications cover parameters for identification and configuration, automatic login of the machine user to the peripheral devices as well as the monitoring and control of process values.
- OPC 40084 series: Extruder
The parts describe the extrusion line as a whole, and the different components.
- Part 1: General Type Definitions
- Part 2: Extrusion line
- Part 3: Extruder
- Part 4: Haul-off
- Part 5: Melt pump
- Part 6: Filter
- Part 7: Die
- Part 8: Pelletizer
- Part 9: Cutter
- Part 10: Calibrator
- Part 11: Corrugator
- Part 12: Calender
- OPC 40086: Material Supply Systems
Deals with the handling of granules, powder or liquids. Simple systems are considered, like bagged goods to loaders as well as highly complex systems with silos, pipes, dryers, mixers and dosing units.
Part 1 covers the order management with the management of jobs and tracing of the material.
- OPC 40087: Particle Foam Machines – block foam and shape moulding machines
- OPC 40091: Winders – e.g. winding of plastic film or tubes. It may also be suitable for other industries as well (e.g. printing machines).
- OPC 40092-1: PUR Foam Cutting Machines
Polyurethane (PUR) foam is a synthetic polymer produced by the chemical reaction of polyols and isocyanates. It is widely used in flexible applications such as cushioning, insulation, and packaging due to its open-cell structure, elasticity, and durability.
Projects under development:
- Inline Measurement Systems
- OPC 40079: Interface between Injection Moulding Machine and Handling Device / Robot
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