Page 12 - Booklet on Workshop on Industry4. with CIMCO

Workshop on Industry 4.0 using CIMCO products

8. What is MTConnect protocol

Like most businesses, shop floors are constantly trying to increase the productivity, profitabil-
ity, & efficiency. With Industry 4.0, these businesses are now looking for a software and data to
improve their efficiency.

However, the latest machine shop floor contains many different types of machines, each sup-
porting different proprietary interfaces & communication protocols. This diversity has made it
extremely challenging for system integrators to monitor & maintain their machines with one
single software.

Fortunately, the MTConnect (and, for that matter, Fanuc FOCAS, Haas Next Gen, and other
new, more modern protocols) has made it possible for a machine monitoring system to con-
sistently and accurately collect data from any MTConnect compatible machine.

MTConnect takes this countless number of manufacturing equipment, devices, and software,
and provides a common language for these systems to communicate. This common language
makes it possible to monitor things like the amount of time a machine is in cycle, the delays
(downtime) it experiences, and any number of things that can be measured and monitored
with data.

The concept:

Some terms used are as below -

Device – Commonly a machine tool, but can be any piece of equipment of data source.
Adapter – An optional piece of software (and sometimes hardware) that provides a link or con-
version from the data source and proprietary data definition in the device to the MTConnect
Data definition. This can be thought of as a translator. The Adapter is not needed for devices
that use MTConnect as their native language.
Agent – A piece of software that collects, arranges, and stores data from the device or adapter.
It receives requests for data from applications, processes those requests, and then transmits
the required data. The function of the Agent is defined by the MTConnect Standard. It is the
only part of the communication system that is specifically defined by the standard.

11