June 4, 2020 OPC Tunneling Enabling Connectivity for Land O’Lakes

Land O’Lakes Dairy used OPC expert to connect an Emerson DeltaV control system to an Ignition HMI (Human Machine Interface).

Figure 1 OPC DA data from the DeltaV control system is converted to OPC UA and transferred securely to Ignition

Jim Rowe, Controls/Instrumentation Engineer for Land O’Lakes Dairy used OPC Expert to connect an Emerson DeltaV control system to an Ignition HMI (Human Machine Interface). At the processing plant in Kent, Ohio, Rowe needed to collect real-time data from Emerson DeltaV control system in Inductive Automations Ignition HMI.

“We wanted to go back and see our previous historical data to identify specific abnormal production events. We would use it to troubleshoot and identify what was causing production to slow down and minimize it from happening in the future,” Rowe said.

Rowe was collecting data in the tub butter manufacturing process. Variables such as tank levels, pump speed, and currents are important for plant optimization, and to measure overall equipment efficiency (OEE).

The problem was Ignition could not connect directly to DeltaV OPC Server due to security measures associate with OPC Classics COM-based DA server. Furthermore, Ignition was running on Windows 2016, , while Emerson DeltaV was using Windows Server 2008. Since these system could not communicate directly, Rowe needed to tunnel the data from DeltaV to Ignition.

Rowe used OPC Expert locally on his Emerson DeltaV OPC DA server computer. He used a second OPC Expert locally on his Inductive Automation Ignition computer. This enabled him to traverse different domains and operating systems, and collect his real-time data in Ignition’s historian. OPC Expert collected the DeltaV DA data and handled all data transportation and security requirements using OPC UA. Ignition was then able retrieve the data from OPC Expert, enabling it to be logged for further analysis. The Ignition HMI recognized OPC Expert as a local OPC server, enabling a secure and reliable connection without having to handle network interruption (which was seamlessly handled by OPC Expert).

Inductive Automation Ignition was also used to archive the real-time data in long-term storage. “We use historical data to create weekly reports on plant efficiency. OPC Expert enables us to quickly gather the data required to put these reports together,” Rowe said.

Figure 2 Ignition is connected to DeltaV despite being an OPC DA server

Using OPC Expert, Rowe was able to successfully connect the Emerson DeltaV control system to his Inductive Automation Ignition HMI, allowing him to retrieve the historical OPC data needed to for plant optimization. Despite the two separate server types, OPC Expert handled the conversion of data required to enable communication between them.

Land O’Lakes is a farmer owned and operated dairy cooperated based out Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1921, Land O’Lakes one of the largest producers of butter and cheese in the United States through its dairy foods business; serves producers, animal owners and their families through more than 4,700 local cooperatives, independent dealers and other large retailers.

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