Lenze PC-based automation - Manual (Page 51)

DMS 1.3 EN - 02/2011
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51
Control technology| System manual
Appendix
Basics of the OPC standard
8 Appendix
This chapter informs you about the basics of the OPC communication standard and gives
you an overview of where OPC is used in the Lenze control technology.
8.1 Basics of the OPC standard
The industrial operation in the automation technology can be divided into three levels:
1. The master level manages and visualises information.
2. The control level manages information and serves as process control.
3. The field level manages data and provides measured values.
The control and master level mostly use PC components. The field level consists of hard-
ware in the form of sensors and actors.
PC-based automation solutions are used to implement a suitable process connection to en-
able the access to the data of the field level. To exchange data with PC applications, a spe-
cial driver is required with a conventional automation solution. Each hardware requires its
own driver. Thus, the corresponding software application should be adapted to each hard-
ware. The OPC standard simplifies the communication between Engineering PC and Indus-
trial PC and the access to the data of the field level.
8.1.1 Communication by means of OPC
OPC is a standardised software interface for manufacturer-independent communication
in the automation technology. OPC stands for Openness, Productivity, Collaboration, for-
merly OLE for Process Control. The target is to exchange data between different software
applications.