Digital MTConnect Interface for Controllers — Digital and Independent

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Looking Back: the Beginnings of MTConnect

In North America, another, very interesting standard has been used for a good ten years: MTConnect. The groundwork for the project was laid in 2006 at the annual meeting of the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT). At that time, the basic problem in industrial production remained that there was no uniform language between tool machines and the other systems in the production line. The first standard for recording all machine data to a superordinate company level was created in 2008, MTConnect 1.0. The “MTConnect Institute” was founded the following year, which was dedicated to the development of the standard language.

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Detecting, Translating, and Displaying with Little Effort

Monitoring machines can uncover and report a number of problems before expensive failures occur. Monitoring provides specific numbers about the cycle times, and also supports planning and logistics. This is where MTConnect comes in: by allowing companies to visualize work flows in manufacturing areas, which further enables them to optimize processes, uncover savings potentials, and take necessary actions based on the information they obtain.

The open-source, royalty free standard leverages proven internet protocols to transform data from manufacturing equipment into a standardized format. In principle, the data obtained from the machines is provided to an application, which in turn translates the data into legible metrics, which ultimately enable remote monitoring of the machine’s status and activity.

The MTConnect Standard consists of three components: an adapter, an agent, and an application. The adapter records machine data, standardizes it, and transfers it to the agent. The agent follows a prescribed XML method that organizes the data in a standard format, no matter what type of machine is being monitored. The agent buffers the data and then forwards it to the application on request. The application subsequently stores the data in a database and can display it in a way humans can understand. Theoretically, the adapter and agent can also be operated separately from one another in an ‘agent only’ solution. Diagrams or tables are used to present the output data from the machines in a way that is easier for the users to understand.

Digital Interface for Seamless Communication

MTConnect can thus be viewed as a universal, digital interface. Because it is based on a simple Ethernet standard, it can be easily integrated into existing machines without interrupting the manufacturing process. This solution provides a license-free, open-source standard, which records data information that it can, in turn, forward to an analysis software. MTConnect can be integrated in factories as an interface and connects the data collector to the application, connects this in turn to an HTML website, and subsequently displays the efficiency of this facility in comparison to others. By using this simple concept, companies with complex machines and processes can easily digitize their manufacturing environment.

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