umati to Become the Global Production Language

Frankfurt, Germany - The VDMA (German Engineering Federation) and the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association) are joining forces to promote the use and dissemination of OPC UA standards throughout the mechanical engineering sector under the umati label.

“Cross-industry and cross-technology marketing will take our customers a significant step forward,” said Dr Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director, the VDW, explaining the strategy at the associations’ joint press conference in Frankfurt.

“Manufacturing companies not only have machine tools, but also their own individual mix of machines, equipment, robots and systems. If all these technologies can exist in a common ecosystem which is ideal for producing plug-and-play solutions, this will save end-users a lot of time and money,” Schäfer continued.

Hartmut Rauen, Deputy Executive Director, the VDMA, added, “Over 30 specialist groupings in more than 17 associations are working on technology-specific interfaces, the ‘Companion Specifications’. This high level of collaboration forms the basis of true, open interoperability between machines and software systems, from the shop floor to the cloud.”

An initiative to develop an open, standardized interface was presented back in 2017. A decision was taken in favor of OPC UA as the base technology. Just two years later, a showcase featuring 70 partners from ten countries demonstrated at EMO Hannover that it was possible to connect 110 machines to 28 software services distributed across the exhibition grounds in a system which functions to all intents and purposes on a ‘plug and play’ basis. In addition, the VDW launched the umati – universal machine tool interface label back in 2018, a brand aimed primarily at customers all over the world.

In the meantime, numerous other OPC UA Companion Specifications have been developed by the VDMA and its partner organizations. In order to give these specifications greater visibility and to increase their usage levels, umati is now being extended to cover the entire mechanical and plant engineering industry as a community for the use and marketing of OPC UA Companion Specifications.

The press conference held offered better clarity on the use of umati. “Membership of umati is not needed to use OPC UA standards. But then, it will not be possible to use the umati brand and label without being a member of the ‘umati club’. Membership is required in order to be part of the community and reap benefits from marketing, showcases, publicity etc. For the moment, it is free. But umati is to be developed as a long-term, self-sustaining not-for-profit organization that will have to distribute the cost among its members,” said the spokesperson.

When Soumi Mitra, Editor-in-Chief, MMI, asked regarding its adoption among Asian Machine Tool companies, it was informed that one company and CMTBA (China Machine Tool Builders’ Association)/NC Link as consortium/association from China; 11 companies and Edgecross Consortium from Japan; one Korean company, one Singaporean company; and four companies and two associations – TMBA (Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association) and TAMI (Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry) from Taiwan have already adopted umati.

Source: VDW