OPC Foundation releases draft ADI specification, aims to improve analyzer integration

Scottsdale, AZ – The OPC Foundation has announced the release of the draft Analyzer Devices Integration (ADI) Specification. This new specification provides the pharmaceutical industry with a common method for data exchange for analyzer data models for process and laboratory analyzers. End-users have spoken in support of the ADI specification .

Developed as an extension of OPC UA (unified architecture) , the ADI specification serves as an information model for analyzer devices to enable plug-and-play multi-vendor interoperability. Standards based analyzer integration helps support data management and integration solutions such as PAT (process analytical technology).

The ADI spec addresses several types of devices including spectrometers and particle-size analyzers. Further clarifications and additions of other analyzer types will be the focus of the OPC ADI effort in 2009 with the final release of the OPC ADI specification scheduled for the second half of the year.

The release of this highly anticipated new specification continues to follow the OPC Foundation’s principle of providing end-users the ability to implement “quality by design” in their manufacturing systems. Analyzers that apply the new standard will have the ability to interact with larger plant automation systems through open communications.

“The release of the ADI standard enables us to provide the industry with analytical products based on open connectivity that interoperate with manufacturing system much more efficiently than was possible before ADI,” according to Thomas Buijs, product manager at ABB.

The OPC Foundation working group, composed of end-users and vendors, collaborated to define and finalize the specification. The working group has grown from several founding members to a large multi-industry group that includes large pharmaceutical and food companies, vendors of analytical devices, and control systems and integration software suppliers. The working group represents both PAT and laboratory interests.

“The OPC ADI effort is a great example of vendors, integrators, and end-users collaborating to solve a problem,” says Thomas Burke, president of the OPC Foundation. “The progress achieved by the OPC ADI working group proves that OPC UA provides a solid foundation for development of information models.”

OPC UA provides a base foundation of services for discovery, read/write, and subscription for information that is described by industry standards organizations focused on information modeling.

Edited by Peter Welander, process industries editor Control Engineering News Desk Register here to select your choice of free eNewsletters .

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