Chicago, IL — GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms announced its support of MTConnect, a new communication protocol to link machine tools from varying suppliers around the world. MTConnect will be officially launched by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) at IMTS 2008, September 8-13, 2008 in Chicago, and on display at the AMT Emerging Technology Center and at the GE Fanuc booth, A-8418, South Hall, at the show. At IMTS, GE Fanuc will demonstrate the integration of GE Fanuc CNC systems into an MTConnect Network and link multiple CNC controllers from both around the show and over the Internet to remote sites using the CIMPLICITY HMI software system.
MTConnect is based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) which offers widely recognized and accepted flexible representation for exchanging semi structured machine-readable data. The standard will be open and royalty free to insure the widest possible acceptance and utility. MTConnect will use commercially available technologies as its basis and will provide royalty-free reference implementations of sample software which can be used as-is, modified to suit special needs, reverse-engineered, or for inclusion in your own software system. This approach allows connectivity from the lowest end of the process chain, nearest the workpiece or shop floor, to the highest design or process planning tools.
::Design World::
Filed Under: Machine tools + subtractive manufacturing, Motion control • motor controls