Machine and Production Line Control and Monitoring via OPC

Machines—and in many cases entire production lines—are controlled in real time by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). The OPC communication interface enables unified communication with PLCs from different manufacturers. This means that a complete production line can be monitored, for example, through a single central graphical interface, allowing operators to communicate with individual machines. Such an interface can display current machine statuses, warnings, summaries, images, or animations. Thanks to OPC, it does not matter if the machines were made by different manufacturers or even if they vary in age.

At OLC Systems, we have experience with both the older OPC-DA standard (COM architecture) and the newer OPC-UA standard (proxy objects). We can connect machines to a monitoring desktop and control them via a web application delivered to our customers.

We also develop complete manufacturing information systems that integrate individual machines as modules. This allows us to control, within a single system, not only newer machines that support OPC communication but also older ones that do not. As a result, customers gain a single, user-friendly system (further extendable via OPC) and save costs on operator training.