CNC program developer Fanuc FA America is introducing an OPC server it indicated was designed specifically to simplify accessing and collecting machine production data. OPC servers are software applications that create a link from a control platform to individual devices, and makes it possible for the data in that device to be read and reported as performance data, or recorded for historical documentation, etc. ‘
Fanuc FA America supplies Fanuc CNC systems in North and South America, including control systems, drives and motors, and CO2 laser solutions. It also offers engineering support, parts, repair and factory automation solutions and training programs to machine tool builders and users.
With regard to machine control protocols, Fanuc FA America noted that OPC has long been an industry standard, and many industrial software packages have built-in support for OPC specifically for data retrieval. Now, these systems can be connected to a Fanuc CNC.
Its new FASOPC was designed to draw machine production data out of a Fanuc CNC and off the shop floor, it said, more easily than before.
The FASOPC server communicates with Fanuc CNCs programmed with FOCAS (a series of dll library files that can access almost all of the information inside the CNC), to read and write data with efficiency. The configuration utility’s intuitive user interface uses ‘wizards’ specifically designed for the Fanuc CNC to guide users through the processes of setting up all of the controls.
Once a control type is identified, then data only relevant to that control type is presented to the user. There is no need for additional knowledge of Fanuc CNC capabilities to use FASOPC.
FASOPC supports OPC DA specification 3.0, 2.0, and 1.0 gives it flexibility to serve data to most OPC clients now commercially available.
