A food packaging equipment OEM needed help designing a system architecture that would allow an end user with a global footprint to access their data in real-time while significantly reducing the OEM’s maintenance costs.

They also needed to enable their user to access operational data locally without providing access to their private machine data, which was routed to the cloud for preventive maintenance monitoring.

System challenges

Here is a summary of the challenges that the OEM faced in creating and managing an effective system solution:

• Needed access to real-time data globally
• Local access to operational data without access to private machine data
• Needed to avoid higher OEM maintenance costs
• Needed to reduce server management and licensing costs

The original architecture included industrial PCs and a centralized protocol server, which captured and transmitted all available data to the cloud. The operational dataset that the user required was sent back to them.

This architecture resulted in exorbitant server management and licensing costs, totaling almost $1 million annually. In addition to the on-going costs, there was also no way to share real-time data with the user, which inhibited their ability to drive efficiency.

The modular design of the FlexEdge DA50A makes designing for compatibility with rapidly evolving communications standards as easy as replacing a field-installable sled. Regardless of the brand of PLC or other equipment specified, the FlexEdge platform powered by Crimson, enables connectivity to virtually any device in a system.

The Solution

Red Lion provided an elegant solution through the use of a FlexEdge™ DA50A device powered by Crimson®. The advanced automation FlexEdge gateway was installed at the machine layer, connecting and communicating with multiple different PLCs through Crimson’s robust protocol conversion functionality.
With Crimson, simple applications can be set up quickly using a step-by-step process to configure communications protocols and define data tags for access. An extensive menu of built-in, point-and-click serial and Ethernet drivers map controller data to PLC registers in seconds. Built-in communications drivers inherently know how to talk to PLCs, PCs or SCADA systems—so no code is required to establish communication.

Leveraging FlexEdge’s OPC-UA Server enabled different datasets to be distributed based on the credentials used. Crimson configured the credential-based datasets and routed the local data to the user and the larger, private, OEM dataset to the OEM’s Gateway Panel layer, which was another FlexEdge gateway with a built-in OPC-UA Client.
The OPC-UA Client device captured the OEM’s private machine data and sent it to the cloud via MQTT.

Results

• Gateway installed at machine layer
• Different datasets can be distributed based on credentials used. Easily configurable credential-based datasets
• Elimination of $1 million in annual licensing fees
• Increased efficiency and access to real-time data

Ultimately, the OEM eliminated their $1 million in annual licensing fees and provided their user the real-time data they needed to monitor their operational output and increase their efficiency.

Colin Geis, Director of Product Management – IIoT, Red Lion Controls