The first OPC UA server was already presented in 2006. From 2007, it was officially used as a TwinCAT supplement and in initial customer projects. The innovative company culture continually allows new ideas to be invented, recognises the value of important standards at an early stage and supports them as pioneers – including OPC UA. The beneficiaries are Beckhoff's technology-oriented customers, as demonstrated by numerous applications in a wide variety of industries – from water management to manufacturing and renewable energies.
Beckhoff is still an active member of the working groups of the OPC Foundation and has its products tested every year for real interoperability and stability in the latest versions and with the latest functions. Beckhoff products and OPC UA are thus optimally matched to each other.
The OPC Foundation is a non-profit international standardisation organisation whose members develop specifications, technologies, certifications and processes for companies, products and services. One of the resulting technologies is OPC UA, a secure data exchange standard for manufacturer- and platform-independent industrial communication from the sensor to the cloud.
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