Emerson selects Matrikon technology to embed OPC UA functionality

Honeywell Process Solutions has announced that its Matrikon OPC Unified Architecture (UA) Software Development Kit (SDK) has been selected by Emerson Process Management to embed OPC UA in its CSI 6500 ATG Machinery HealthT Protection System.

Growing adoption of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industrie 4.0 is driving requirements for open and secure connectivity between devices and in edge-to-cloud solutions. Since OPC UA serves as a key data connectivity standard, vendors are seeking to enable their new and existing products with this technology to compete in the IIoT/Industrie 4.0 landscape. The Matrikon OPC UA SDK is a single, fully scalable toolkit that allows users to quickly and easily interconnect industrial software systems, regardless of the platform, operating system or size.

“Device vendors like Emerson are turning to the Matrikon OPC UA SDK to easily and seamlessly embed OPC UA into their products,” said Elgonda La Grange, director for HPS’s Advanced Solutions software products. “This versatile toolkit has the industry’s lowest memory requirement but at the same time is highly performant (sic). The benefit of the solution is that our customers’ developers use the same API across all processor sizes and operating systems.”

While the agreement between Emerson and Honeywell facilitates adoption across all Emerson Process Management, Honeywell’s OPC UA stack is initially deployed in the new CSI 6500 ATG protection system. Evaluation for further deployment within Emerson Process Management is ongoing.

For original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) using SDKs to embed OPC UA functionality in their device or microchip, the Matrikon OPC UA SDK provides a robust, user-friendly solution to quickly move products to market. Unlike other OPC UA toolkits, it works equally well in small, embedded environments and large, PC-based applications. This scalability makes the SDK a ‘one-stop shop’ solution for companies that want to OPC UA-enable multiple product lines ranging from networked discrete sensors and actuators to programmable controllers.

According to La Grange, automation suppliers will see the Matrikon OPC UA SDK as an effective solution for deploying IIoT connectivity across their product lines. With its ‘server-in-a-box’ design, the SDK provides vendors with a fast, easy method of implementing optimised, highly reliable OPC UA products without requiring their development engineers to be OPC UA experts — ensuring significantly reduced time to market.