This document 40020-1 specifies a Companion Specification for Cranes and Hoists. A crane or hoist in this context can be any existing or future crane or hoist type (e. g. bridge crane, gantry crane or light crane system) as well as their control units and other peripheral components. Cranes can be equipped with one or more hoists (e. g. electric rope hoist). The implicit and explicit information model specified by the Cranes and Hoists Companion Specification will be defined as a UA companion specification using OPC UA constructs for the purpose of exchanging cranes and hoists information with OPC UA applications.

The OPC UA for Cranes and Hoists Companion Specification will be split into several parts from Part 1 to Part n. The OPC UA for Cranes and Hoists Working Group aims for high interoperability with OPC Robotics.

Part 1 covers a basic description of the cranes and hoists as a motion device system and has the main scope of transporting condition data from a motion device system vertically into higher level manufacturing systems (line PLC, MES; Cloud) for information and diagnostic purposes. In addition, communication of limitations from external systems may be covered. Subsequent parts will cover other use cases.