6 OPC UA for Mining Transport Dumping - Conveying Information Model overview

This section provides an overview of the OPC UA information model for a belt conveyor in the mining context. The BeltConveyorType instance is the entry point to the OPC UA server of a belt conveyor.

This specification is based on two fundamental specifications that have a strong influence on the model. These are OPC 40001-1 UA for Machinery - Basic Building Blocks and OPC 40560 UA for Mining General. These two companion specifications are therefore very visible in the appearance of the information model for belt conveyors.

Firstly, each belt conveyor has an instance of MiningEquipmentIdentificationType from OPC 40560. This provides general identification features as well as those specific to the mining industry.

All plant components provided in this Companion Specification are located within the instance of the MachineComponentsType of OPC 40001-1. These respective ObjectTypes are defined later in this document.

All parameters of the entire belt conveyor system that are to be monitored should be found in the MonitoringType of OPC 40001-1. The parameters of the individual system components that are to be monitored can be found within the respective objects of the components.

In this specification, MachineryItemState_StateMachineType was also expanded to reflect the specific characteristics of belt conveyors in the mining industry. This led to the creation of the BeltConveyorStateMachine.

The Object MachineryBuildingBlocks is always implemented when using individual building blocks of OPC 40001-1. This object is used to refer to all objects derived from OPC 40001-1 in an OPC UA server. This allows a client that is not familiar with the current standard but is familiar with OPC 40001-1 to read the relevant information from it.