OPC Member Press Releases

Season's Greetings: A free OPC UA client for Android
Press Release from: Prosys PMS Ltd, on December 22, 2011
ProsysOPC would like to thank all of our customers and partners for making 2011 a great year! Prosys OPC UA Java SDK has provided support for Android development since the latest release (1.3.0). As an example of great performance of Java and OPC UA we provide a free demo client for Android 2.3. The provided demo client is preview and we will continue developing it in 2012. If you have ideas for mobile applications or demos you would like to see, please let us know. You can control our "Christmas tree" running on Beckhoff OPC UA server with Prosys OPC UA Client for Android 2.3 and observe it via web cam. The "Christmas tree" includes three blinking modes that you can select in the client (Program 1, Program 2 and Program 3). You can select the blinking speed to be "Fast", "Normal" or "Slow". Lights can also be switched on and off with buttons marked with corresponding color. Please notice that you have to enable "Unknown sources" in your Android device settings before installing the client. Prosys OPC UA Client for Android 2.3 is available for download at http://www.prosysopc.com/opcua/Tools/UaClientForAndroid.apk Web cam is available at http://skin.prosys.fi:8080 If you don't have an Android device you can use other OPC UA clients to access the demo system. Input variables are LIGHTMODE and DELAYTIME and they can be found under Root/Objects/PLC1/Programs/MAIN in address space tree. LIGHTMODE is integer variable to switch the blinking mode. It can have values between 0 (blinking off) and 3. DELAYTIME is unsigned integer variable and defines the delay between switching a light on or off in milliseconds. You can control the blinking speed with DELAYTIME. Output variables GREENOUT, REDOUT, YELLOWOUT and WHITEOUT can be found under Root/Objects/PLC1. The server is available at opc.tcp://skin.prosys.fi:48400 ProysOPC wishes happy holidays and enjoyable moments with our demo client! ... [Full Story]

Kepware Technologies' KEPServerEX Communications Platform Passes OPC Foundation's Lab Certification
Press Release from: Kepware Technologies, on December 13, 2011
RELEASE: Portland, ME, December 13, 2011 - Kepware Technologies, the leader in communications for automation announces that its communication platform, KEPServerEX, has passed the OPC Foundation's Lab Certification for both OPC UA and OPC DA specifications. The OPC Foundations Lab Certification's objectives are to ensure member companies are providing products that meet a wide range of criteria including reliability, performance, usability, and strict compliance with the OPC specifications. Please visit the OPC Foundation website for a complete view of their objectives and procedures. "To ensure our OPC enabled products interoperate with other vendors' applications, we have continually participated in OPC interoperability, self-certification and 3rd party certification programs offered by the OPC Foundation, for Data Access and Alarms and Events" said Tony Paine, President of Kepware Technologies. "With this release, we have made the same investment in our Unified Architecture technology, the latest OPC standard, providing our customers and partners with an independent seal of approval that we meet the conformance requirements specified by the Foundation." "Manufacturing end users who purchase OPC-compliant products expect 24/7 reliability, full data information integrity, and validated, secure interoperability", according to Craig Resnick, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group. "This is why ARC recommends that end users specify these products be OPC Foundation certified. Kepware's KEPServerEX passing the OPC Foundation's Lab Certification for OPC UA and OPC DA is assurance that its products are reliable and interoperable with other supplier's OPC products and solutions". ABOUT KEPWARE TECHNOLOGIES: Kepware Technologies, established in 1995, develops a wide range of communication and interoperability software solutions for the Automation industry. Our flexible and scalable solutions are for connecting, managing, monitoring, and controlling diverse automation devices and software applications. Our industry endorsed software solutions improve operations and decision-making throughout all levels of an organization. Kepware Technologies' mission is to be "Your Standard for Connectivity". ... [Full Story]

Kepware Technologies Strengthens Their International Market Presence by Selecting Sarla Technologies as Their Preferred Distributor for India
Press Release from: Kepware Technologies, on December 6, 2011
RELEASE: Portland, ME, December 6, 2011 - Kepware Technologies, the leader in Communications for Automation, announced today that Sarla Technologies will be their preferred distributor of products and services in India. Sarla Technologies has extensive experience in providing world-class support and services for today's Automation Communication business challenges, with expertise in the latest Industrial & Process Automation Systems, Legacy Control Systems, and Plant-Enterprise Data Integration. Through years of successful product and services implementation spanning a range of industry verticals, Sarla has a proven track record of providing innovative solutions for leading industry organizations. "Sarla has been a well-respected Automation Solutions provider for a number of years," said Tony Paine, President of Kepware Technologies. "When selecting our preferred distributor for this rapidly growing market, we found that Sarla strongly aligned with Kepware's commitment to quality products and customizable solutions." Following a recent expansion prompted by on-going success in India, Sarla is well positioned to represent Kepware's award-winning products and services. "By partnering with Kepware, we look to offer a robust and proven Plant Connectivity solution in the Plant IT and Automation spectrum," said Anil Mehta, CEO of Sarla Technologies. "These solutions complement very well with our Plant Intelligence Solutions and are a best fit offering for our sub-channels and partners too." "Our partnership with Sarla will help our clients achieve their corporate objectives. It will also help us maintain our leadership position as the industry's premier Automation Communications and Interoperability Platform solutions provider," concluded Paine. ... [Full Story]

Weatherford International is "Connected with Kepware"
Press Release from: Kepware Technologies, on December 1, 2011
RELEASE: Portland, ME, December 1, 2011 - Kepware Technologies, the leader in communications for automation, announced today that it has been selected by Weatherford International as their primary developer and provider of connectivity for their popular line of Rod Pump Controllers. As a "Connected with Kepware" partner, Kepware will work closely with Weatherford to ensure they have the latest OPC connectivity standards and that our communications drivers deliver the highest quality and most reliable solution possible for their rod pump controllers. The new Weatherford 8500 driver runs on Kepwares industry leading KEPServerEX communications platform providing Proven Interoperability, Centralized Communications, On Demand Scalability and Industrial Strength. "Our selection process of an OPC provider consisted of understanding of who is the best of the best in the industry and also understanding where each provider derives their bread and butter." Said Gregg Hurst, North America Business Unit Manager of Weatherford International "There are other companies in the market that have developed OPC drivers for us in the past and still dabble in it, but this is not their core competency and focus as it is at Kepware. We know they are in this business for the long haul and will continue to provide enhancements to keep pace with the industry." "We have developed our relationship with Kepware through one of their largest value added resellers, Software Toolbox, who works with some of our larger users of our equipment." Said Gregg Hurst "Software Toolbox has been instrumental in helping us to bridge our clients OPC requirements with Kepwares development process as well as providing project management services beginning with project scoping to delivery of our OPC solution to the market place. In my opinion, Software Toolboxs service has provided increased customer satisfaction and resulted in a more feature rich product for Weatherford." "Kepware is committed to enhancing our KEPServerEx communications platform for the Oil and Gas market. This market has unique requirements and with our partnership with Weatherford and Software Toolbox we have been able to gain a better understanding of this space and add additional value to our products," said Tony Paine, President of Kepware Technologies. "Customers in other markets will also be able to leverage the majority of this functionality, such as Media Level Redundancy, to develop fail-safe connectivity in their automated control systems." ... [Full Story]

Kepware wins Finance Authority of Maine Award
Press Release from: Kepware Technologies, on November 30, 2011
RELEASE: Portland, ME, November 30, 2011 - Kepware Technologies the leader in communications for automation has been awarded the "Business at Work for Maine Award". The award is given to an outstanding Maine business that has enjoyed success and helped the Maine economy by creating and/or retaining jobs. "We were very impressed by Kepware's role as innovators in Maine's IT industry and their commitment to the community and support of higher education and workforce development in Maine." Said Bill Norbert Governmental Affairs and Communications Manager. "Our team at Kepware strongly believes that producing talent is the key to a healthy technology sector in Maine," said Corson Ellis Founder and Chairman of Kepware Technologies. "We have built a lot of our company around graduates from the University of Maine Engineering programs, and believe that the private sector's role in supporting engineering education is crucial for economic development within our state." ... [Full Story]

WingTip, Canary Labs and Kepware Introduce the hBOX Wireless Historian
Press Release from: Kepware Technologies, on November 16, 2011
The First Low Cost, High Performance, Store and Forward Historian Appliance RELEASE: Richland, WA, November 16, 2011 - WingTip LLC, in combination with Canary Labs and Kepware Technologies, today introduced the hBOX, a wireless severe duty historian appliance. The hBOX is the first product on the market to combine low cost with enterprise class historian performance in a ready to use appliance. A member of the PlantMESH 802.11b/g/n Ethernet wireless mesh network system, the hBOX is ready for outdoor or indoor use. The primary goal in developing the hBOX was to provide an operational historian appliance that could be located directly adjacent to the equipment being monitored, rather than using a centralized historian that attempts to capture data over a remote Wide Area Network (WAN) connection, according to David McKay, WingTip Director of PlantMESH Product Development. "Most of the geographically distributed industries, such as PetroChem, Mining and Utilities need to collect data from remotely located equipment. In many cases, the connection to the remotely connected equipment is bandwidth limited and can have reliability issues," McKay said. Ideally, data loss could be eradicated by collecting the data locally, then synchronizing the data to the central historian, a scenario also known as 'Store and Forward' data collection. "The hBOX provides a simple solution to Store and Forward needs, you just locate the hBOX near your remote equipment, collect the data, and on routine intervals that match the needs of your WAN, synchronize the historian to a centralized hBOX," McKay explained. "Unlike raw data collection, where historical data can be lost if the connection is broken or simply too slow, the hBOX automatically makes sure the full synchronization completes, and retries as necessary. " Central to the hBOX's enterprise class performance is a highly optimized special edition of Canary Labs award winning historian solution. "The hBOX from Wingtip is the ideal industrial appliance, its unique design allows it to become a member of your enterprise mesh network for capturing and managing process data. It highlights our philosophy that data collection should just work without requiring complex hardware and software configurations. The hBOX will improve the quality and consistency of data from a customers processes, provide rapid deployment and easy integration with the process devices", said Gary Stern, president Canary Labs. Performance, indeed. In stress testing, the hBOX collected 30,000 tags at a 0.1 second update rate, for a total of more than 260,000 updates per second and 1.22 Gb of data per hour. There are very few industrial facilities whose data collection needs won't fall well within the performance window of a standalone hBOX. Naturally, the hBOX needed communication drivers for industrial devices, and WingTip turned to Kepware Technologies to provide the most comprehensive solution on the market. "WingTip has built a unique solution to ensure the high reliability of data collection and storage for markets where regulatory concerns are of great importance," states Tony Paine, President and CEO of Kepware Technologies. "We are pleased to have been chosen as the communications provider for the hBox platform." In addition to the store and forward scenario, the hBOX can function as the sole plant historian for a customer's facility, at a breakthrough price point. The hBOX is a fully functioning member of the PlantMESH product family, and has both wired and wireless models. Unlike a typical historian solution, there is no other hardware needed, you simple purchase the appliance and start collecting data. "At a starting cost under $3,900 for a complete historian solution, it will be difficult for the traditional historian solutions to compete, considering a price delta that starts at $10,000," McKay said. "In addition, simply by adding PlantMESH nodes, just about any equipment can be wirelessly attached for data collection, allowing the customer to deploy full data collection solutions at a fraction of the cost. For more information on the hBOX and PlantMESH™, please visit http://plantmesh.com. ... [Full Story]

AFCON Software and Electronics signs Pulse SCADA distributor in Brazil
Press Release from: AFCON Software & Electronics Ltd, on November 8, 2011
November 7, 2011, AFCON, a leading SCADA/HMI provider, is expanding its operations in Latin America. The company reports it has signed a distribution agreement with Altus, a Brazilian company, to distribute its SCADA/HMI software Pulse in Brazil. Under the agreement, Altus became the exclusive distributor of AFCON in Brazil. This agreement is a major step for AFCON in expanding its presence in Latin America, following its already successful presence in Argentina and other countries in the area. ... [Full Story]