BANNOCKBURN, IL – An IPC subcommittee has made strides in developing a machine data interface standard that would enable manufacturers and equipment, device and software suppliers to achieve Industry 4.0 benefits.

The IPC Connected Factory Initiative subcommittee aims to support “true plug-and-play interoperability” of devices, systems and machines in the factory. The standard would provide for a “baseline required” transport mechanism to support plug-and-play, the trade group said. Such a baseline is necessary to achieve plug-and-play interoperability, IPC added, but allowed that the standard would also permit optional transport methods.

The subcommittee formed a task group that created the Machine Communications Functional Requirements survey to gather feedback from equipment, device, software, and product manufacturers and suppliers on data sets and functional capabilities Connected Factory Exchange (CFX) should support. Responses are being used to prepare the draft standard, the trade group said.

The subcommittee is made up of a variety of equipment and software suppliers, led by co-chairs Jason Spera, CEO of Aegis Software, and Mahi Duggirala, director of enterprise solutions at Flex.

“Duggirala offered to share the data integration work Flex is doing with their ecosystem of equipment suppliers and system integrators,” said Spera. “Through this work, the plurality of machine vendors in the industry has already worked to create machine data and control interfaces using open standards to easily integrate with OT/IT systems in support of Industry 4.0 for their equipment.” “Some of Flex’s equipment suppliers and partners are willing to present and share the data content and interfaces they developed in collaboration with Flex with IPC and the committee for peer review, to see if those formats, transport/communication and implementation can be used as a baseline foundation to speed the standard creation,” said Nancy Jaster, IPC staff liaison to the subcommittee.

The subcommittee plans to have the baseline foundation established by IPC Apex Expo in February.

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