Product Overview of Ignition by Inductive Automation
Introduction
Ignition, developed by Inductive Automation, is a universal industrial application platform designed to meet the diverse needs of industrial automation, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), and MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) among other applications. This platform is renowned for its modular architecture, allowing for unlimited extensibility and customization.
Key Features and Functionality
Modular Architecture
Ignition’s core strength lies in its modular design, enabling users to add or remove modules as needed without disrupting operations. These modules are hot-pluggable, ensuring seamless integration and upgrades.
Core Modules
- Vision Module: This module provides visualization capabilities for plant-floor and desktop screens, allowing users to launch rich, web-deployed clients and display charts, graphs, trends, and HMI screens.
- Ignition Perspective Module: Designed for mobile-responsive industrial applications, this module enables the creation of visually stunning applications using HTML5 for any screen size.
- SQL Bridge Module: This module bridges the gap between OPC data and SQL databases, offering efficient transaction management, data logging, and bi-directional data synchronization.
- Tag Historian Module: Converts a SQL database into a high-performance time-series tag historian, facilitating powerful data aggregation, storage, and query binding.
- Reporting Module: Allows the creation of dynamic, database-driven PDF reports with precise layout control.
- Alarm Notification Module: Configures alarm notification logic, manages notifications for user groups, and sends alerts via email or other methods.
Additional Modules
- Enterprise Administration Module (EAM): Provides a secure and intuitive way to manage multiple Ignition installations from a single location.
- OPC UA Module: Connects to major programmable logic controllers (PLCs) as a cross-platform OPC UA server.
- Sequential Function Charts (SFC) Module: Streamlines the creation and visualization of robust logic systems.
- Web Browser Module, Voice Notification Module, SMS Notification Module, and others: These modules add specialized features such as embedding web browsers, voice and SMS notifications, and more.
Shared Resources and Gateway
The Ignition Gateway serves as the backbone of the system, managing shared resources like database connections, device connections, Tags, Security profiles, and Alarming. This ensures that all modules work together seamlessly without the need for multiple connections.
Web-Based HMI and SCADA Applications
Ignition allows for the deployment of web-based HMI and SCADA applications, enabling access to PLCs and SQL databases on any platform. Users can create runtime clients, interact with systems and devices, and manage their entire system from one place.
High-Performance Historian
The platform includes a high-performance historian that can use any SQL database, monitoring and controlling data with features like partitioning and compression algorithms for efficient storage and retrieval.
Reporting and Alarming
Ignition offers a robust reporting engine for creating dynamic PDF reports and a state-of-the-art alarming engine for setting up alarms with customizable notification options via email, SMS, or voice messages.
Customization and Extensibility
One of the key advantages of Ignition is its ability to be completely customized to meet specific industrial needs. Users can build database applications, create POS, CRM, and inventory tracking systems, and integrate with existing ERP and Access systems. The modular nature ensures that the system can be tailored to fit any unique process or requirement.
In summary, Ignition by Inductive Automation is a powerful, flexible, and highly customizable platform that empowers businesses to control, track, display, and analyze their industrial data efficiently, making it an ideal solution for a wide range of industrial automation needs.