Typical use cases
- Batch record: Document weigh-ins of raw and additive materials automatically and tamper-proof per batch
- Process visualisation: Show hopper and silo weights live in the control room – including limit monitoring and alarms
- Dosing & recipes: Send setpoints from the control system to the weighing station and report actual values back with tolerance status
- Consumption capture: Capture material flows between plant sections via differential weighing and provide them for OEE and yield analyses
- Retrofit: integrate existing, even older scales and weighing terminals into a newly introduced MES instead of replacing hardware
How the integration works
We take on the scale side completely: reading the devices via RS232, RS485, Ethernet or fieldbus, checking the values for stability and plausibility, and buffering if the control level is temporarily unreachable. That applies to weighing terminals from METTLER TOLEDO as well as to hopper and silo weighing technology from Minebea Intec. Hand-over to your MES or SCADA – whether WinCC, Ignition, zenon or another system – happens via its official interfaces, via industry standards such as OPC UA, or via a staging database; we define the specific route together with your system integrator or automation engineers.
At home between the field level and the control level
Scales technically sit between worlds: too intelligent for a simple analogue signal, too special for the standard drivers of many control systems. Our role is that of the translator – we know the manufacturer protocols of the weighing technology and the requirements of the process-control level, from the sampling rate to the question of how a legal-for-trade value is to be treated in the record. The result is a connection that runs in continuous operation, reports defined error states and can be taken along when systems change.
Frequently asked questions
How does weighing data get into an MES or SCADA system?
Our software reads the scale or weighing terminal directly, validates the readings and makes them available to the control level via the official interfaces of the respective system – frequently via standardised industrial protocols such as OPC UA, or via a staging database agreed with your system integrator. Weights thus appear as process values in the control system and in the batch records.
Our scale only has RS232 – is that enough for the control level?
Yes. That is precisely a core case of our work: we translate the scale's serial manufacturer protocol into a form your MES or SCADA understands. The scale doesn't have to be replaced for this – even older terminals can be integrated into modern control systems this way.
Do you work with our system integrator?
Yes, that is the normal case: your integrator is responsible for the control level, we deliver the scale connection as a clearly delimited work package with a documented interface. We actively handle the coordination so that no topic falls between the trades.
Related topics
WinCC is a trademark of Siemens AG, Ignition a trademark of Inductive Automation, zenon a trademark of COPA-DATA GmbH. Digital Trend Systems is an independent software service provider; the names are used solely to describe compatibility.
