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Case Study: Siemens, Denmark

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Integrating OPC servers and data from high-security facility

In a recent data integration project, Siemens engineers in Copenhagen, Denmark were able to connect equipment and instrumentation running in a high-security facility to a remote monitoring location, using DataHub® software. The goal was to allow technicians access to the machines they needed to work on, without breaching security or permitting any non-authorized personnel on site.

At first the project promised to be a typical OPC application. The main objective was to connect a chiller unit with an OPC DA server running at a secure facility to two SCADA systems at a monitoring station, each enabled as an OPC DA client. However, it soon became apparent that there would be some problems with networking. OPC DA networking depends on DCOM, which at the best of times can be difficult to configure and slow to reconnect after a network break. To make matters worse, the OPC server provided by the chiller manufacturer was not up to the task.

“This particular OPC server has some strange behaviors,” said Carsten Barsballe, the project leader. “It won’t run as a service, and it won’t allow remote connections using DCOM, because when you disconnect, you are not able to reconnect. So we decided to encapsulate it in DataHub software.” Barsballe installed a DataHub instance on the same machine as the chiller’s OPC server, and configured it to run as a service, causing it to connect whenever the system starts. This allows him to use the DataHub instance for all OPC client connections.

At the monitoring facility, Barsballe discovered another potential setback. His SCADA systems were not able to connect remotely to an OPC server. They required a local OPC connection, so Barsballe decided to use DataHub tunnel/mirroring. He installed two more DataHub instancess, one on each SCADA system machine, and configured tunnel/mirror connections across the network to the first DataHub instance. His SCADA systems each connected to their local DataHub instance, and the data link was complete. Technicians could now view data from the high-security facility from the safe distance of the monitoring location.

“The two SCADA systems are separate from the chiller unit, but fully connected in real-time, so technicians can work on them as they are used to,” said Barsballe. “This is a way to keep people from touching things they don’t know about. We have lots of people working at all hours, and now there is no need to for them to be onsite at any time.”

With the chiller system up and running, Barsballe plans to integrate more data sources into the system. They have a few UPS (uninterruptible power supply) units with SNMP connectivity that they need to monitor, and by adding an SNMP-OPC server, the data from these will be brought into the DataHub instance. After that, they will also attach an OPC server for several meter-reading input devices. All of this data will then be sent across to the SCADA systems, and made available to the service people who need access to it.

“The DataHub software is running very well,” said Barsballe. “We do a lot of this kind of data integration, and there will be other projects. Now we have a good feeling for this product. We have chosen the right solution.”

Case Study: Schneider Electric FZE, Dubai

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Integrating access security and building management.

Schneider Electric specializes in energy management, with products and solutions to help consumers and companies get the most for their energy dollar. In a prestigious Dubai project recently, Schneider Electric FZE engineers used DataHub® software to integrate a building’s security system with its energy management system to provide state-of-the-art energy efficiency at substantial cost savings.

To implement the project, Schneider Electric’s BAS Field Supervisor, Pradeep Viswanathan and BAS Application Specialist, Duncan McChlery worked closely with Boyce Baine, Technical Support Engineer at Software Toolbox, Cogent’s sales and technical partner for North America, as well as Koshy Thomas, Project Manager at Al Hani Gulf Contracting. Together they implemented a solution in which a DataHub instance relays information from a Lenel OnGuard security system to Schneider Electric’s TAC Satchwell Sigma building management system.

The Lenel OnGuard security system monitors and controls building security equipment (access, intrusion detection, and closed circuit TV) while the TAC Sigma BMS handles HVAC, energy management, lighting, elevators, electrical systems, fire alarms, emergency equipment and other energy needs. With the data integration in place, the Lenel OnGuard system can, for example, read data from a Badge ID of someone entering the building, and pass the information to the TAC Sigma BMS to automatically switch on the lights and air conditioning in his office. When he arrives there, the office is cooled and well-lit. Then, when he leaves for the day, the system shuts things down to save energy.

The integration of data for this project required an OPC connection to the Lenel system’s OPC server on the one hand, and a DDE connection to the TAC Satchwell Sigma building management system on the other. Since DataHub software abstracts the data, and converts it from one protocol to another, making the connection was simply a matter of configuring the DataHub instance to make an OPC client connection to the Lenel system, and a DDE client connection on the TAC system.

“The project was straightforward to implement,” said Mr. Viswanathan. “With the excellent support from Software Toolbox and Cogent for the DataHub software, and Al Hani Gulf Contracting and Lenel for their expertise with the Lenel OPC server, we were in very good hands. The system has been online for a few months now, and is working very well. This is where the world needs to go in this age of high energy prices. We not only save money for the customer, but protect the environment as well.”

Case Study: Kimberly-Clark, Switzerland

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Networking control and video systems for quality control using DataHub software

The Kimberly-Clark production facility in Niederbipp, Switzerland, is the leading tissue paper producer for Switzerland and Austria, supplying Hakle, Tela, Scott, Kleenex, and other popular brands of tissues for consumers throughout Europe.

In a recent upgrade to their video-based quality control system, Kimberly-Clark needed to connect their existing ABB QCS (Quality Control System) to a new, state-of-the-art Viconsys Process and Quality Vision System, to ensure the highest quality product. For implementation, they contacted Logic Park, an engineering and system integration company located in Thun, Switzerland.

“This project was a little unusual,” said Bruno Maurer, Head of Solutions at Logic Park. “The two systems had to be connected across a network. But each system was protected by a firewall, and each offered only an OPC server interface for data connections. We had to bridge these two OPC servers, passing the data across the network. Using DCOM for networking was out of the question, because it would open too many ports in the firewalls, and it is difficult to configure. What we needed was a way to tunnel the data across the network, and bridge the OPC servers at either end of the tunnel.”

To achieve these goals, Bruno turned to DataHub® software, which offers both OPC tunneling and bridging in a single, integrated product. He installed one DataHub instance on the same machine as the ABB QCS system, and connected it to that OPC server.

He then installed a second DataHub instance on the Viconsys computer, and connected it to the Viconsys OPC server. Then he configured the OPC tunnel, and was able to see both sets of data mirrored between the two DataHub instances. From there, it was a straightforward task to configure the necessary bridges to write data from one OPC server to the other OPC server. He had a test connection running in a several hours, and within a few days the new system was completely functional.

“DataHub software worked very well for this project,” said Bruno. “Taken by itself, the OPC tunnel is robust and secure. Combined with OPC bridging, this product has given us a complete and reliable way to network real-time data.”

Case Study: ABB Energy Automation, Italy

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Secure OPC tunnel/mirror between power plants and company offices

In two recent projects, Italy’s ABB Energy Automation has developed a control solution that feeds data from power plant facilities directly to corporate offices – in real time – using DataHub® software. A key requirement was to provide a highly secure means of data transmission, with minimal risk of break-ins. For each project they implemented a DataHub tunnel/mirror solution to establish a secure, reliable connection between the power plant and corporate networks.

ABB Energy Automation provides software and control systems for power plants to ensure that equipment operates at optimum speed and efficiency. For these projects, it became clear that several Italian power companies would benefit substantially by monitoring the performance of the plant directly from the company offices. Mr. Michele Mannucci, ABB Project Engineer, began looking for a way to make the connection, using the most reliable and secure means available.

“Customers are very sensitive about security these days since they need to exchange information on the web,” he said. “We had OPC DA servers on our equipment, but found that using DCOM for networking was too risky. It required us to open too many ports in our firewalls. We had to find a way to avoid using DCOM.”

A search on the web brought Mr. Mannucci to DataHub software. For the first test, he connected a DataHub instance to the plant’s DigiVis Freelance 2000 OPC server, and then configured it to tunnel out through the plant firewall. With that working, he installed another DataHub instance on the corporate network, and then created a tunnel/mirror connection between the two DataHub instances.

For the production system, the company decided to use ABB’s own proprietary OPC server on the secure LAN in the plant, and connect that to the DataHub instance. From there the data flows out through the plant firewall via SSL-encrypted TCP to a DataHub instance in the corporate offices, which is connected to the corporate LAN. The two DataHub instances mirror the data, so that every data change on the plant LAN is immediately received on the corporate LAN.

“This DataHub tunnel with data mirroring is very good for our OPC networking, because we only need to open one port, and we are secure from DCOM break-ins,” said Mannucci. “We are considering installing this same solution in our top plants.”

It took only a few days for Mannucci to go from initial testing to a working system in the first power plant. The second system was up and running in a similar time frame. Both systems have been running 24/7 since installation, with no breaches in security.

Case Study: Plastics Manufacturer, Scandinavia

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Leading plastics manufacturere uses live process data to optimize production, saving time and materials

One of Scandinavia’s leading plastics manufacturers has chosen DataHub® software from Cogent Real-Time Systems (a subsidiary of Skkynet) to extract data and interact with their state-of-the-art plastic manufacturing equipment. The firm can now access any desired process data for the purposes of engineering analysis and enterprise-level resource planning.  DataHub software was the only additional piece of software required to realize substantial savings of time, materials, and production costs.

“The DataHub application is exactly the kind we needed,” said the project coordinator. “Our system is extensive, and we need to visualize a lot of production parameters. We looked at other solutions but they were too expensive and more complicated.”

plastics-manufacturer-plantWhen the company installed new equipment recently, the necessary system integration grew very complex. Progress was slow. After almost a year they were facing a deadline and had little to show for their time and effort. The goal was to pull together data from 15 machinery units, and feed it in real time into the company’s business processing systems. And if possible, to enable plant engineers to view and work with the live data as well. When they found DataHub software they were pleased to learn that most of the work had already been done.

The first test was to connect a DataHub instance to an OPC server and put live data into ODBC databases, Excel spreadsheets, and web browsers, as well as to aggregate OPC servers and tunnel data across a network. DataHub technology proved to be easy to use and reliable, and it performed remarkably well. The next step was to set up a test system.

The test system connected all of the OPC servers for the plant’s plastics production machines to a central DataHub instance. Another DataHub instance at a network node in the engineering department is connected to the central instance by a mirroring connection, for tunnelling data across the network. This second DataHub instance is then connected to an Excel spreadsheet to give a live display of the data in real time. When a piece of equipment machine starts up on the production line, the chart comes to life—cells spontaneously update values and bar charts spring into existence.

The engineering department was able to develop a custom TCP application that uses the DataHub C++ API to make a direct connection from the DataHub instance to their SQL Server database. Once connected that database gets updated in milliseconds with any change in the plastic-manufacturing machinery. From the SQL Server database the data is accessed by the company’s ERP and accounting software. Using DataHub software in these ways allows the company to:

  • Aggregate the data from all machinery into one central location.
  • Distribute the data across the network to various users.
  • Do decimal conversions of the data as it passes through the DataHub instance.
  • Put selected subsets of data into Excel for engineers to view and run calculations on.
  • Feed values into a SQL Server database in the company’s IT and business processing system. The OPC points are read-only to ensure a clean separation between the management and production areas.

“This system pays for itself,” said a company spokesman, “and we save money in many ways. We have seen substantial gains in productivity and performance because we can monitor our processes far more effectively. Our accounting and planning departments have, for the first time ever, an up-to-the-second record of actual production variables and statistics. At the same time, our engineering staff can use real-time data in their calculations, and feed the results directly back into the process.”

DataHub technology also saved substantial programming costs. The time alone saved on development work has paid for the system many times over. With a single tool the project coordinator has met the various needs of both the engineers and company managers. “The software is easy to install and it works well,” he said. “It’s at the correct level for our needs.”

Case Study: Mukhaizna Oil Field, Oman

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Optimizing OPC connections with the DataHub

In 2005 the Sultanate of Oman issued a Royal Decree to develop the giant Mukhaizna oil field covering a vast expanse of desert in the center and south of the country. A major worldwide producer of oil, natural gas, and chemicals was given responsibility for developing the Mukhaizna field, and from 2005 to 2008 oil recovery rates were increased by more than 600% through the use of a steam-assisted gravity drainage process. As each year goes by, the company makes every effort to continuously upgrade technology and improve productivity of the field.

Eight separate production facilities in the Mukhaizna oil field are using Rockwell PLCs, linked to Iconics HMI/SCADA systems for data visualization and operator control. This data collection and distribution mechanism worked well when first implemented, but as the number of data points increased over time it became clear to the project engineers that they needed a way to improve performance. So they began to look for a way to streamline the data flow. The solution they found not only performed well, but it created other, significant opportunities for real-time data integration.

Software Toolbox logo

At each of the eight locations, Rockwell PLCs are connected to an Iconics Genesis32 HMI through an OPC server. The TOP Server OPC server from Software Toolbox (Skkynet’s Sales and Technical Partner) gathers data from as many as 20 PLCs, and feeds that to the HMI. As new equipment was brought online, the number of tags in the system approached 30,000, which is normally not a problem for TOP Server. But something was clearly different with this system and it became apparent that some sort of optimization was necessary.

Optimization

The problem was that the HMI was forcing the TOP Server to make device reads, which bypassed TOP Server’s optimization at the device level. Device reads by an OPC client are intended to cause the OPC server to get the information and reply back to the OPC client before doing anything else. While these types of calls are useful in critical situations, all communication optimization has to be done through full system design. The HMI was also requesting updates on groups of OPC tags as it needed them, but these groups were often in a different logical order than how the data points were represented on the PLC. The combined effect was forcing the TOP Server to make more requests for smaller amounts of data, slowing the data-gathering process.

“The OPC server seemed to be dying under the load,” said Juan Munoz, Project Manager for the Mukhaizna oil field project. “Even at rates as low as once per second, it was difficult to scan 30,000 tags, and get the critical data changes that we needed.” Based on his experience with the TOP Server in other projects, Mr. Munoz knew the server itself was not the issue, so he searched the Software Toolbox website for a solution and found DataHub® technology.

DataHub software, developed by Cogent Real-Time Systems (a subsidiary of Skkynet), is a highly optimized data integration tool. It is a memory resident real-time database that provides quick, reliable and secure access to valuable process data and makes it available to other production and management systems, database archives, and remote clients.

Once he started configuring a DataHub instance, Mr. Munoz soon realized how it could solve his data flow problem. Acting as an OPC client to TOP Server, DataHub software can request data based on tag value changes (referred to as “asynchronous advise”). This means that instead of 30,000 tags per second, TOP Server only sends data for a tag when it changes value. It is free to poll the devices in the most efficient way, always keeping the DataHub instance up to date with the latest data values. The DataHub instance keeps all the latest tag values in memory, and can efficiently send them to the HMI on each poll.

“DataHub software effectively decouples the OPC server from the client,” said Mr. Munoz. “All the load is on its shoulders  now, and the performance is much better.” The TOP Server is now free to optimize the communications to the device while the DataHub instance protects it from device reads. This has relieved the company from having to redesign their HMI and PLC configurations from the ground up, saving them tens of thousands of dollars in engineering and development work.

When he was satisfied with the results at the first location, Mr. Munoz began installing DataHub software at the seven other facilities. He experienced a similar performance boost, and at the same time created a new data integration opportunity. He now had most of the pieces in place to bring all of the live production data to a central location, using OPC tunnelling.

Tunnelling OPC

Tunnelling OPC is a reliable and secure way to connect OPC servers and clients over a network. OPC DA uses DCOM for networking, which is difficult to configure, does not respond well to network breaks, and can pose significant security risks. DataHub software mirrors data between OPC DA servers and clients through a tunnel using TCP, which is a more robust protocol for networking.

To implement tunnelling, Mr. Munoz installed another DataHub instance on a Windows server at the Mukhaizna oil field central office. After configuring tunnelling connections between that DataHub instance and the remote ones, he was able to access the data from all eight field locations as a single, common data set, without putting any more load on his control system. This data could now be logged and shared at the management level of the company.

Using the DataHub Database interface, Mr. Munoz configured connections to OSIsoft PI and SQL Server databases, to record production data at the remote sites and at the central office. Historical records and reports are now being made available through standard tools such as SQL and Crystal Reports. Mr. Munoz also configured an OPC connection from the central DataHub instance to an Iconics Web HMI to give managers access to the live data from all of the eight field sites. Operators, on the other hand, continue to control the processes from the HMIs running at the remote locations.

Among the critical information that operators and management need to monitor is the available memory and status of programs running at each field location. The company was able to achieve this by configuring the DataHub System Monitor feature, which allowed Mr. Munoz to add points that monitor the available computer memory and status of the OPC server running at each remote location. This data is accessed locally by operators, and is also tunnelled back to the central DataHub instance, so it can be viewed by users of the Web HMI on the management network.

“DataHub software is very easy to use,” said Mr. Munoz. “In fact, at a recent training session we showed some other people at the company what we are doing, and they are very impressed.”

Redundancy

The most recent project that Mr. Munoz has decided to tackle with DataHub software is to implement redundancy. To provide increased availability, the company has installed an additional OPC server at some locations. Working with Win Worrall, Product Support Engineer and Developer at Software Toolbox, Mr. Munoz has implemented DataHub redundancy to monitor the quality of the data coming from the local OPC server.

If the quality of an indicator changes to “Bad” or “Not Connected” on the primary OPC server, the DataHub instance immediately switches to the redundant OPC server and continues collecting data from there. Although this is currently undergoing testing before being implemented in the production facility, Mr. Munoz reports that there is no data loss during the switchover, and that the performance is very reliable.

Scripting

To gain maximum value from DataHub software, Mr. Munoz has developed a working knowledge of DataHub Scripting. “The scripting language did take a little time to learn, but it is very useful for the types of scripts we need to use. We can develop scripts quickly now, because the language is object oriented.”

Starting with a demo script from the DataHub archive, Mr. Munoz has been able to access data from a legacy UNIX system and make it available through OPC. To access the data, Mr. Munoz wrote a DataHub script to read a CSV file every minute and write the values to points in the DataHub instance. Because DataHub software is also an OPC server, this allows points from the UNIX system to be presented as OPC tags to the HMI system.

“I am impressed with how quickly Juan has picked up the scripting,” said Mr. Worrall. “In fact, he’s pretty good at getting the most out of DataHub technology in just about every way.” “We are very grateful to Win and the overall support from Software Toolbox on this project,” said Mr. Munoz. “We haven’t found many problems. In all aspects, DataHub software is performing very well.”

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