Real-time access
Direct access to PLC control units and sensors — via Profibus or Profinet for Siemens S5/S7, and via the ADS interface for Beckhoff.
Innovations · Digital Transformation
Digitalize the shop floor — with Gamma 7.
In the age of Industry 4.0, real-time data from production is becoming ever more important. Gamma 7 reads out machines with PLC controllers, restructures their data and makes it usable for higher-level services — without disrupting ongoing production.
The questions
What industry really wants to know.
Around the world, machines with built-in PLC controllers go about their work. But can their process data be read out? How heavily is a plant utilized, when is the next maintenance due, how do the machine-internal processes work? Can sources of error be detected in time, machines be networked and the manufacturing process be shaped dynamically? And above all: how do you get at this data without hindering production — and with which migration strategy? These are precisely the questions that digital transformation with Gamma 7 answers.
The solution
Real-time access to the data source.
The Gamma 7 communication platform developed by RST enables direct access to a machine’s PLC control unit and sensors. The extracted data is read out in real time, restructured and organized outside the controller with an adapted semantic model. The result is a synchronous process data model — a digital twin that mirrors the machine and provides every prerequisite for higher-level services. While most PLC controllers are still implemented according to the IEC 61131 standard from 1993, Gamma 7 offers a PLC toolset based on the more modern IEC 61499 standard, which allows distributed programming and connection to service brokers.
How it works
Gamma 7 as a communication platform.
Structured data
Extracted PLC data is restructured and organized outside the controller with an adapted semantic model.
Microseconds
Storage in main memory with access times in the microsecond range for higher-level services.
70+ interfaces
More than 70 additional interfaces with over 1,000 I/O functions deliver supplementary data, for example for predictive maintenance.
Disruption-free
Additional data enters the system via I/O terminals such as emBRICK or EtherCAT — without altering existing controllers.
Big-data ready
Time-stamped data is passed on to databases such as Elastic Search — up to 6 million process parameters per system and second.
In figures
Data on an industrial scale.
- 70+
- interfaces for supplementary data
- 1,000+
- different I/O functions
- 6 million
- process parameters per system and second
- Microseconds
- access time in main memory
Value creation
From the machine to management.
Building on the digital twin as an abstract surface, the most diverse technologies can be combined. The Gamma 7 multi-broker communicates with the outside world via services; OPC or DDS are also available as standard interfaces — in this way even an AI can exchange information with production and the control application. The data that has been read out can be forwarded to Proway Business World, which handles supply chain management and real-time control of the machines. In ERP and planning systems, the data is put to further use and prepared graphically for management.