In SMT production, which consists of systems from different manufacturers, independent networking between machines and higher-level enterprise systems is a prerequisite for data exchange and analysis.
"SMT manufacturers and other production companies are faced with the challenge of having to collect and analyze the data accordingly in order to be able to develop such services," explains Peter Bollinger, CEO of iTAC Software AG.
The higher-level systems such as MES, ERP, analytics and IIoT platforms have therefore often accessed the information in different ways up to now. To simplify this process, standards such as IPC-CFX are to be established on the market. The CFX standard is used for vertical communication and enables data upload, download and analysis.
"The disadvantage here is that CFX is only compatible with newer machines. Older machines, some of which have been in production for up to 20 years, do not benefit from this. And not all machine manufacturers are in a position to adapt their systems accordingly overnight," explains Peter Bollinger.
With the new iTAC.SMT.Edge development from iTAC, the data is merged on the store floor using a machine integration platform based on an edge solution and distributed to higher-level systems such as MES, ERP, etc. via a direct interface. There is an extensive library of specialized software interfaces for each device type from different manufacturers and these can be easily connected using configurable adapters.
