Softing Industrial presented its new EdgeGate at Hannover Messe 2024 — a maintenance-free hardware solution for transferring production data from programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and computerized numerical controllers (CNCs) to edge and cloud-based environments.
EdgeGate simplifies access to PLCs and CNCs. It enables seamless and secure data integration into advanced management systems such as Enterprise-Resource-Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution System (MES) or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). This integration is available for both
Source: Softing Industrial new and established facilities. Communication via OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) ensures a robust and reliable connection.
Additionally, EdgeGate provides Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) functionality. This feature facilitates the direct integration of machine data into private or public internet of things cloud applications. The MQTT implementation is generic and compatible with multiple cloud providers. Like the OPC UA standard, MQTT supports a range of security mechanisms including encrypted connections, certificates and user authentication. These features collectively enhance data security significantly.
EdgeGate is practically maintenance-free and allows connection to controllers without interfering with existing systems. Supported controllers include Siemens Simatic PLC, Siemens Sinumerik controller, Fanuc CNC controller, Modbus TCP, Allen-Bradley PLC or OPC UA Client machine data. It provides a simple web interface for fast application configuration as well as an additional security layer and communication encryption.
The capabilities of EdgeGate can be expanded by integrating the EdgeConnector products from Softing Industrial, which offer similar functionalities in a Docker-based software version. Another compatible product is Softing’s Docker-based EdgeAggregator software, which provides a powerful OPC UA data integration layer.
