Framework Service is the foundation for all automationX solutions. Minimal configuration is necessary to develop exactly the configuration that your project requires. From easy single-user solutions to distributed cluster solutions for infrastructure: you decide on the architecture for your solution—all our subsystems are automatically interconnected without any need for engineering in the background. Seamless integration into your existing system landscape is guaranteed. On top of that, our redundancy concepts ensure safety and availability.

• Object-oriented class and library management
• Horizontal/vertical integration into existing IT landscapes
• Communication nodes including load balancing for optimal use of resources
• Stand alone for single-user solutions
• Redundant—no downtime for maintenance and service—hot standby
• Cluster support with active/active or active/passive for the greatest availability
• Installations physical and/or in a virtual environment
• Cloud support
• Broker/device communication (IoT) to connect and network many PLC devices
• Independent of hardware
• Integrated source administration—version control with comparison and recovery options
• API support: C#, SOAP, REST, JSON, SQL, ODBC, etc.
• Maximum life cycle support—products available for at least 10 years

User interface for end users and engineering
Ultimately only the login decides what role you will assume. During project development, many advantages are associated with having a screen available like the one the operator has in live operation. The option of making adjustments later directly at the control station without the need for a specific engineering environment or license accelerates all types of projects.

• Smart client technology—available without elaborate Installation
• Redundancy support (user actions are followed up)
• Dynamic image generation from geospatial information
• Multi-screen support per client station
• Map integration—use of inventory maps
• Intelligent display building (zoom, decluttering, layer, picture in picture)
• Direct link—emergency mode if a service connection is unavailable, direct communication with devices
• ISA 101 HMI Standard
• Playback Manager to reproduce historical conditions (incidents, accidents, etc.)
• Multilingual
• Single Sign-on support
• Active Directory-support
• Floating user license model

Our IEC 61131 SoftSPS solution provides the usual standard along with unmatchable flexibility. Real-time behavior is possible in combination with our Linux real-time operating system.

• IEC 61131 Soft PLC for gateway and controller solutions
• Data buffer mechanism (unlimited)
• Real-time Linux support
• Number of communication protocols > 50
• Deterministic protocol redundancies (PROFIBUS and PROFINET—also for participants without redundancy support!)
• Optimized resource management for maximum project volume
• Diagnosis of web interface
• Standardized PLC open support
• Real-time data acquisition
• Independent of hardware (Siemens, Wago, Beckhoff, Advantech, Kontron, B&R Syslogic, etc.)
• Force/simulation/debugging support
• Uninterrupted online engineering

Information management provides support with simple OEE analysis, statistical process control, predictive analytics and other comprehensive data processing modules. One system delivers standard process display visualization as well as all the management information you need. The login decides what information is available!

• Alarm, Pareto analysis and Gantt chart
• Personalized alarm without programming—easy to configure with wizard
• Journal—complete record of all user actions
• Trending
• Validation and aggregation of process data
• Metadata (e.g., time-based limits)
• Statistical process control (SPC)
• OEE
• Predictive analytics
• End user report designer
• Notifications
• Archive levels for long-term data archiving
• Import/export (e.g., metadata, production data, information from government agencies)

Advanced process control became established in the 1970s and is the basis for many of our optimization solutions. Over the years, our product offerings have expanded thanks to constant developments in the area of process optimization. Successfully implemented optimization solutions are a sign of how we have been living through and experiencing the digital transformation for decades!

automationX Production Management for batch-oriented applications and classic MES solutions. The modular system setup made possible by a class library allows us to adapt the system perfectly to your needs. The encapsulated basic functions are subject to strict version control, thus enabling standardized implementation, maintenance and servicing of your application.

• ANSI/ISA S88/S95
• Master data management
• Planning (general planning, detailed planning, resource planning)
• Optimized production planning—aXBaMa Toolchain
• Control—execution
• Material and batch tracking—tracing
• Quality assurance
• Ad hoc orders for spontaneous and unplanned orders
• Late binding mechanism
• Recipe management across all lines
• Rescaling and calculation functions for recipes
• Preproduction, semi-finished goods, halting/breaks
• Support with subprocesses
• Custom extension to integrate customer-specific add-on modules
• Maintenance and service management
• ERP interface

Homogeneous integration into any IT network is possible with the aXcontroller. The controller variant with Linux and a real-time kernel is an alternative to traditional PLC solutions. Maximum program storage thanks to available system resources provides space for comprehensive PLC projects. The solution for the Windows controller variant is an all-in-one package: SCADA, HMI and PLC. With such characteristics, the aXcontroller is perfect for decentralized (cell-oriented) solutions for industry and infrastructure.
aXcontroller A1900-8000 Documentation

The aXlink100 connects Ethernet and PROFIBUS using Xlink, the real-time Ethernet protocol developed by AutomationX. The aXlink100 has two Ethernet interfaces, an 8P8C (RJ45) or a FIC, and a PROFIBUS DP Master Interface—ideal hardware for your PROFIBUS decentralized periphery.
A number of system and network configurations are possible with these interfaces. With this device, an electric ring can be set up via CAT5 cables or a network redundancy and/or a server redundancy can be set up in a star-shaped network with switches. With the Ethernet interface, up to 16 PROFIBUS Master (aXlink100) can be linked to automationX by up to 124 PROFIBUS-DP Slaves each.
aXlink100 Documentation

Customer-specific firmware support distinguishes aXconverter from traditional converters. Targeted data preprocessing on the converter allows quick and simple integration of hardware that does not have the required interfaces.
The aXconverter has an internal bus data logger that can be used as a protocol debugger. All serial data traffic can be logged via an Ethernet connection. A firmware module allows quick downloading or replacement of a variety of different software components. All required configurations and addressing employ a rotary switch or a DIP switch.
aXconverter Documentation

In principle, the vision of meeting 100% of electrical energy demand and even producing a surplus can be realized by using renewable but fluctuating sources (e.g., photovoltaics) to produce energy. Existing urban electrical energy systems may restrict growth due to technical limits such as grid bottlenecks from peaks in production or increases in voltage. Optimized control strategies have been developed that permit proactive responses. Model-based predictive control (MPC) has already proven successful in industrial applications (for example power plant technology). Thanks to the predictive nature of the controller, the optimal response can be found to changes in the future.

Project partners:

In this project, innovative control concepts were developed using model-based, nonlinear methods of control in combination with intelligent sensors. The focus was on implementing control and regulation algorithms for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and building loads that are supported by the model and adapted to the physical properties of the building. Intelligent sensors along with real-time data acquisition and processing provide support for secondary model-based control and regulation algorithms, thereby contributing to a general improvement in control accuracy. Through multi-objective tracking of different control targets (optimal energy use, optimal costs, optimal time) and real-time optimization during building operation, the ARIS project significantly optimizes energy consumption and energy savings at a low cost. The ARIS approach focuses on office buildings and public buildings, which have the greatest potential for optimization.

Project partners:

The sector of the economy devoted to manufacturing is responsible for roughly 30% of total energy expenditure in Austria. Along with private households and transportation, it is one of the largest consumers of energy. While the other two sectors have worked for years to develop solutions that increase energy efficiency and energy savings, developments in the manufacturing industry are more recent. As a result of economic and social circumstances, however, more and more companies are striving to plan and operate their production sites sustainably. To date, one obstacle to decisions to make more efficient use of resources in production has been the difficulty in estimating the impact on the entrepreneurial success of the company and the cost of investment in infrastructure. In times of rising energy costs and more conscious consumer decisions, energy efficient production is a key competitive advantage.
Balanced Manufacturing provides a simulation-based method for monitoring, predicting and optimizing the energy and resource requirements of the manufacturing company while taking into account the economic success factors time, cost and quality. AutomationX is responsible for developing the BaMa toolchain.
http://bama.ift.tuwien.ac.at/cube

Project partners:

VUT – Institute for Energy Systems and Thermodynamics (IET)
VUT – Institute for Computer Aided Automation (ASG)
VUT – Institute for interdisciplinary Building Process Management (IBPM)
VUT – Institute for Management Science (IMW)
researchTUb GmbH (rTUb)
Siemens AG Österreich (SIE)
ATP sustain GmbH (ATP)
Daubner Consulting GmbH (DC)
dwh GmbH – Simulation Services & Technical Solutions (DWH)
Wien Energie GmbH (WE)
GW St. Pölten Integrative GmbH (GW)
Berndorf Band GmbH (BB)
Infineon Technologies Austria AG (INF)
Franz Haas Waffel- und Keksanlagen-Industrie GmbH (FHW)
Metall- und Kunststoffwaren Erzeugungsgesellschaft m.b.H. (MKE)
MPREIS Warenvertriebs GmbH (MPR)

The ASPeCT project is developing a method for integrated short-term and long-term production planning that optimizes all essential production resources to include synergy effects and give the company support in decision-making in a complex planning task. Along with the integration of the time horizon for planning, the quality of planning is improved by accepting energy and resource efficiency into the planning target system and facilitating overall optimization of planning with a complex target system. This is achieved with an innovative system that combines short-term and long-term planning based on simulation-supported optimization of multicriteria planning. The method is developed with company partners from different sectors and implemented in the form of demonstrators. The result is a reference setup for an efficient integrated planning system as well as the detailed estimation of the potential impact of the newly developed method when it is used in the company.

Project partners:

DIGIBatch shows how the components knowledge base, functional mockup units (FMU) and a cloud platform can provide small and medium sized companies with a simple and affordable tool for quality assurance and production assurance that preserves core knowledge of the production process. With FMU, physical models from existing simulation environments are combined with empirical knowledge from the knowledge base and with real-time data from the current process. As the digital twin of the core process, the models are then centrally linked to an optimization cycle in a cloud platform at the company level. Recipes can be improved and enhanced by recalibration after each batch and ongoing control parameter adjustment. To increase quality assurance and production assurance, criteria from the process can be monitored automatically and recipes can be developed based on nearly real-time simulation models at all sites without a great need for experimentation.

Project partners:

Renewable and secure energy supply is of great importance for industry, which can only be achieved through the optimal use of all available resources, not least due to the international climate targets. Even in Austria, renewable electricity can only cover part of the energy demand because of a lack of resources. Therefore, the industrial process heat demand in the low and medium temperature range (<400 °C) should be covered by technologies that are efficient in terms of exergy: waste heat utilization, solar process heat and heat pumps in combination with storage tanks, photovoltaics and PVT collectors.

Project Partners: