BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC has released a new standard for data communication inside and outside factories.

IPC-2591, Connected Factory Exchange (CFX), provides a structure for any company, regardless of size or location, to implement Industry 4.0 and smart factory applications to their manufacturing operations, the trade group said. It can be loaded and workable in a matter of hours, IPC added.

IPC CFX can be used by electronics manufacturers, equipment vendors, in-house IT groups and users with applications where data are transmitted and captured. Assemblers can set up data communication between all equipment on their lines and track production on all the equipment from any part of the world in real time.

Machine vendors have one plug-and-play data communication solution. OEMs can also use these standards to enhance real-time control of product quality, from board assembly to box build.

IPC CFX defines all three elements required for a plug-and-play industrial IoT standard: a message protocol, an encoding mechanism and a specific content creation element. The benefits are made possible without the need for middleware.

The IPC CFX standard supports the concept of “big data,” including data of different types from across the factory, data on performance, materials, resources, users, quality events, product tracking and more. The types of data included in IPC CFX are used in many ways, such as a closed-loop feedback system, live production dashboards, MES control, and active quality management.

For more information, visit www.ipc-cfx.org.