The new OPC Foundation North American Certification Test Lab joins the first OPC Test Lab opened in Erlangen, Germany in 2008.

By Control Engineering Staff

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Scottsdale, AZ– March 2009 marked the official opening of the OPC Foundation North American Certification Test Lab who’s underlying premise is local experts, testing local products, in a local environment. The lab joins the first OPC Test Lab opened in Erlangen, Germany in 2008. Separately, OPC Foundation held its 2009 North American Interoperability Workshop, which reinforced the commitment of 12 vendors representing 32 products conforming to the OPC Foundation Unified Architecture (UA) technology. (Also read: OPC: Painless migration, classic OPC DA to OPC UA, partership .)

OPC Foundation president and executive director Thomas Burke said the lab follows proven principles established by other open-standard organizations such as Profibus, Profinet and Fieldbus Foundation. Compliance testing in these organizations “has resulted in bulletproof products that exceed end-user expectations,” he said. “The new North American Certification Test Lab will usher in a new level of confidence for individuals who are integrating software into complex systems from multiple vendors.”

With the opening of the new test lab comes a change in OPC Foundation policy. Vendors who wish to use the term “OPC UA” in their product name must pass certification through the lab.

“Compliance certification provides end-users, manufacturers, and integrators with one thing– confidence,” said Burke. “End-users using OPC servers and OPC clients that have passed the certification have peace of mind knowing their software has passed the OPC Foundation’s highest level of compliance testing.”

As with in the German lab, the North American lab will reference hardware and software from many OPC Foundation members including ABB, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, Wonderware, and others.

Also this month, OPC Foundation held its 2009 North American Interoperability Workshop and welcomed 12 vendors to Boca Raton, FL for testing. Burke said the purpose of this workshop was to validate the interoperability of 15 OPC server and 17 OPC client products available from members.

“The road to the successful implementation of OPC UA has been a long one, but we are now seeing the fruits of our labors,” said Burke. “We are seeing vendors truly embrace OPC UA, and the number of products tested is a testament to their commitment.” Participating workshop vendors included:

• Beckhoff Automation GmbH

• Canary Labs

• Cyberlogic

• Iconics

• ILS Technology

• Inductive Automation

• Indusoft LLC

• MatrikonOPC

• Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

• Mobiform Software Inc.

• OSIsoft Inc.

• Siemens AG

• Softing AG

• Unified Automation GmbH

More information on the OPC Foundation North American Certification Test Lab is available online .

Renee Robbins , senior editor
Control Engineering News Desk
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