Data Acquisition System

[nornrich]

All,

I have been given the responsibility of figuring out a strategy for taking machine level data and using for multiple levels of reporting in the organization. We have plants in multiple parts of the world and no standard for data gathering and reporting. We are predominately an Allen Bradley company, but we do have some Omron and Siemens processers floating around. We have looked at Plant Metrics from AB and we are going to be looking at Wonderware. I have experience with Wonderware and Plant Metrics, but was wondering if there are any other packages out there we should consider looking at.

Regards,

Rich......

Richard Nornhold, PE

http://www.personna.com

 

[danw2]

Ge bought Intellution some years ago, and I'm not sure how actively they've pursued continuing development, but before the buyout Intellution did a fairly good job at integrating upwards. You might put it on the list to look at.

OPC is pushing their new UA architecture. OPC wants to be THE channel used for getting and distributing data. My opinion is that OPC has improved the data acquisition field by an order of magnitude, if not more, because the device drivers are now handled by the OPC server people leaving the database/historian/alarming/reporting functions to the OPC client people (the ones on your list), a division of labor that makes sense and works well. Unlike earlier days, the OPC client vendors don't get bogged down in developing and maintaining device drivers.

Any software you buy should be an OPC client that can handle certified OPC servers and I'd want the client vendor to be talking about how they're going to handle OPC UA down the road.

 

[jraef]

Wonderware has a very nice suite of products right up that alley. Make sure you look at Historian and HMI Reports. By the way, you can use HMI Reports with other SCADA and Historian software, it runs independently.


"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe." -- Abraham Lincoln
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[JLSeagull]

http://www.osisoft.com/

Look for information on the OSI PI data historian. This is a product common among the fortune 100 facilities.

 

[ScottyUK]

PI... just when you thought all the dinosaurs were extinct.

Emerson's Power & Water guys in Pittsburgh and Warsaw were marketing an OPC-enabled version of the excellent Historian package they developed for the legacy WDPF system and which is currently used in the current Ovation range. Have a look at the attachment - probably about 7 years old I think, so it will either have developed or died off.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[controlnovice]

Aspentech's IP21 is also a good, less expensive (than OSI PI) data historian.

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