Industry

100 % Web, OPC UA, One-For-All – technologies that facilitate your way to Industry 4.0

Automotive, mechanical engineering, chemistry, food sector What FlowChief can do for you

The FlowChief software platform supports many industrial and manufacturing processes. FlowChief is flexible, scalable and open for all common communication standards. From simple process operation to Industrial IoT concepts, FlowChief can be the key component for your Industry 4.0 project.

  • Communication via OPC UA, OPC classic, Modbus and many more
  • Processing of very large amounts of data
  • One-For-All: One System – all solutions
  • Perfect scalability and modularity
  • Supports all common operating devices
  • High operational reliability thanks to redundancy solutions
What FlowChief can do for you

SCADA

FlowChief monitors and controls machines and plants. Visualization is the most important interface for the user. Further essential functionalities are production data acquisition, analysis via trend or report functions and alerting in case of failure.

  • Powerful visualization in 100 % web
  • Hot-/Cold standby redundancy
  • Manual or automated recipe management
  • Intuitive and easy handling

Historian / production data acquisition (PDA)

FlowChief is extremely powerful in the collection and aggregation of large amounts of data. The data can also be pre-processed (e.g. Delta Event). Integrated front-end functions such as interactive trending, dashboard, visualization or reporting provide complete transparency for the user when analyzing archive data. The access rights can be assigned finely granulated via the integrated rights and roles concept.

  • Data acquisition: OPC UA (HA), OPC Classic (DA, AE), S7, Modbus, REST, MQTT and many more
  • High-performance SQL database
  • Supports the features digital status, analog and counter data as well as string values
  • UTC time stamping and quality flags
  • Correction of process values
  • Outsourcing function with permanent online access
  • Interfaces for Third-Party (OPC UA HA, Webservice API)
  • Audit function

Energy management

e-Gem integrates operational energy management into the central process control system: Consumption values are classified according to media, organizational units, meters and cost centers. The illustration of complex hierarchical structures enables accounting and creates transparency the entire usage. Flexible dashboards help to provide information in the company for energy managers, technicians, controllers or CEOs.

  • Mapping of energy management master data such as organization, meters, tariffs or cost centers
  • Historization of consumption data and master data
  • Energy management diagrams: Sankey, (multi-)carpet-plot, continuous hydrograph
  • Weather adjustment
  • Peak load monitoring
  • Certified according to ISO 50001

One-For-All One System – all Solutions

Visualization, alerting, historian, energy management and more

100 % web technology Where FlowChief goes ahead

HTML5 web technology is changing the world of SCADA and process control systems. Gone are the days of high-maintenance workplace installations with limited ease of use and ongoing incompatibilities between products or operating systems.

FlowChief is completely designed in pure web technology and, from the very beginning, developed to be applied in the web browser. No matter if control desk, office workstation, mobile notebook, tablet or smartphone, you connect your application – without further installation – to the intranet; via a private cloud or securely via the internet. Your FlowChief system is accessible from anywhere in the world and is not limited to pure visualization. For us, 100 per cent web means full functionality in visualization, charts, protocols, alarm management or maintenance management.

Where FlowChief goes ahead

Your powerful engineering tool for creating process images and animations. The FlowChief imager can be used as a local application or detached as TCP/IP-client. Multiple formatting possibilities, such as alignment tools and included libraries for vector images and objects for various industry sectors, enable a simple creation of great process images.

  • Extensive library for graphics and objects
  • Online-engineering (multiuser, no compiler)
  • Local or via network (TCP/IP)
  • No external development environment needed
  • W3C-standard vector graphics (SVG)
  • Embedding of external sources (webcam, map etc.)

Using 100 % web technology we do not limit ourselves to visualization. At FlowChief pure web means consistent
operation of the web browser in all configuration and user front-ends:

  • Creating a data model
  • Dashboard- and reports-designer
  • Stand-by and alert configuration
  • Machine- and maintenance configuration
  • Energy management
  • System settings
  • Recipe management
  • User management

FlowChief can handle huge amounts of process variables much easier and more convenient by inserting the configuration in a Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheet. Programming skills are not necessary. Configuration can be done offline or online while the system is running. Changes are immediately available, without any downtime:

  • Configuring instead of programming
  • Online-changes without system downtime
  • Integrated plausibility check of the configuration
  • Import and export functionality

The web-based assistant automatically transfers the data-model from its source and therefore prevents complicated handling of large data-point lists. Process variables are generated fully automatic on the base of the PLC configuration. Data resources like OPC UA servers cannot only transfer symbols but also metadata (e.g. units, measurement range,
comments, etc.). Thereby it is possible to plan all data, decentralised, in the controller.

  • Automatic transfer of the configuration from the PLC or SCADA
  • Efficient, high performing engineering
  • Prevention of configuration errors

Satisfies customers

For the Koller Group, a supplier to the automotive industry, SPANGLER Automation has combined the advantages of machine and building control technology in FlowChief. The data are further evaluated in e-Gem. With this, specifications can be adhered to and e.g. the maintenance requirement can be recognized.

Sewage sludge is dried in order to minimise its quantity and thus transport and disposal costs. SPANGLER has automated a Huber SE belt dryer with control technology from FlowChief. The dry material can be stored and opens up new disposal and recycling paths.

SPANGLER and the dumpling specialist Burgis relied on FlowChief for the construction of the new production facility. All processes from delivery and storage, sorting and washing to the production lines are recorded and documented. This is because strict regulations on traceability apply to food.

Infraserv Höchst uses FlowChief as data hub and historian server. FlowChief is predestined for this job: 1. Flexible and open communication with different data sources. 2. the web frontend offers perfect possibilities to make collected data available to a large number of users in the form of graphs, dashboards or reports.

The SCHOTT technology group, which specializes in glass production, has been using FlowChief’s ISO 50001-certified energy data management system e-Gem since 2011. e-Gem acts as a data hub within the company. Energy planning, peak load optimization, billing and technical services continuously access the data and use it for their individual…

Read case report

The decisive factor for a FlowChief process control system was the uniquely integrated overall concept. Apart from the FlowChief process control system, there is no product on the market that offers an innovative and plugin-free web visualization with powerful historization, reporting and alarm platform in one application.

Read case report

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What our customers say

In 2012, we decided to modernize the aging Repas AEG process control system. After an extensive market analysis, the choice fell on FlowChief. The decisive point was above all the uniquely consistent overall concept of the application – so there is no comparable product on the market, which offers a plugin-free web visualization with historian server and alarm platform combined. Meanwhile, we also trust FlowChief with our in-house energy data management.

Wolfgang Voit

Leader Electrical Engnieering SKF Schweinfurt

Approximately 50 employees in the company work with the system and access the application via browser without installing any additional software. This was one of the main reasons for the conversion to FlowChief process control technology. The effort became too great. Only a few employees had access to the system and were increasingly busy transmitting their consumption data to third parties. The prerequisite for a new system was therefore the non-discriminatory, continuous access via web browser. FlowChief offers all this.

Dipl.-Ing. Lothar Kretschmer

Dipl.-Ing. Lothar Kretschmer

Head of Energy Management Schott AG