This specification was created by a joint working group of the OPC Foundation and VDW. It defines an OPC UA Information Model to interface and exchange data with Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) systems.

OPC Foundation

The OPC Foundation defines standards for online data exchange between automation systems. They address access to current data (OPC DA), alarms and events (OPC A&E) and historical data (OPC HDA). Those standards are successfully applied in industrial automation.

The new OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) unifies the existing standards and brings them to state-of-the-art technology using service-oriented architecture (SOA). Platform-independent technology allows the deployment of OPC UA beyond current OPC applications only running on Windows-based PC systems. OPC UA can also run on embedded systems as well as Linux / UNIX based enterprise systems. The provided information can be generically modelled and therefore arbitrary information models can be provided using OPC UA.

German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW)

The VDW, based in Frankfurt/Main, represents the interests of the German machine tool industry. In this context VDW is interested in increasing the innovation and competitive capacity of machine tool builders and manufacturers of CNC systems by reducing the expenses for linking CNC Systems with other applications. This should be achieved by standardization of CNC interfaces.