Thursday, October 15, 2020
Case Study: Berry Global
Sylvain Nappert, P.Eng, senior process engineer at Berry Global, used OPC Expert to connect an HMI (Human Machine Interface) operator console with several industrial scanners. At the NBCA plant in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, Nappert needed to collect production data, but he could not access the data via OPC across the network connection.
“To troubleshoot, go back in time, or make improvements, we needed to capture and store scanner information points. That’s where OPC Expert came in, we could not directly connect the industrial scanners to our HMI,” Nappert said.
Due to IT network security and segregation tactics, Nappert was initially unable to collect tracking data to visualize data points in the plastic film manufacturing process. He needed to maintain network security while transporting data between the industrial scanner and HMI, used to visualize graphs and 3D models. The data tracks film thickness, profile variations, and other quality control information necessary to the plastic film manufacturing process.
Nappert needed a solution to connect to the OPC servers. DCOM and firewall issues prevented him from being able to establish a connection. Nappert chose to use OPC Expert to create a secure tunnel rather than configuring DCOM. This enabled him to reduce his security risk by reducing the number of open ports to only one, ensuring communication is secure (using OPC UA security). This decision enabled him to reduce plant downtime and resume production quickly.
Rather than connect the HMI directly to the scanners, Nappert created three tunnels to one OPC Expert on the HMI computer. Nappert sent data through OPC Expert’ tunnel. The HMI computer recognized OPC Expert as a local OPC server, enabling it to retrieve and display the transferred data from each industrial scanner. The tunnel uses secure OPC UA communication, bypassing DCOM and automatically compensating for network faults such as lost packets or outright disconnections.
“OPC Expert provides a standards-based infrastructure enabling it to tunnel without forcing users to rely on proprietary communication protocols” said Nappert, “it was easy to setup the tunnel,” he added.
running on four machines, Nappert intends to add more OPC Experts in the future as new equipment comes online. In a short amount of time Nappert was able to solve his problem using OPC Expert’s tunneling functionality, saving him time trying to force a connection that was not working.
“OPC Expert was essentially able to marry our HMI and the industrial scanners, giving us the data necessary for troubleshooting and monitoring,” Nappert said.
Berry Global is an industry leader in plastic manufacturing for various markets including food and beverage, hygiene, and healthcare. They boast over 130 locations worldwide, including their headquarters in Evansville, Indiana where the company was founded
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