The Additive Manufacturing Working Group has brought together a core team of equipment builders, process experts and users who have now produced a list of 11 user stories as the basis for developing an OPC UA specification for additive manufacturing. The list includes a number of user-oriented definitions:

• Machine connection and identification
• Machine status
• Orders and parts
• Status of the current job
• Consumables
• Process monitoring
• Current machine configuration
• Process values
• Machine data for KPI calculation
• Documentation of the production process
• Remote control of the machine

The defined interfaces and information will now be described by the participating companies in terms of the requirements for the automated additive process chain. Teams of experts will soon begin their work on the high-priority items, at 26th of january a core team was build.

The standards will be aligned with existing OPC UA standards in order to develop a cross-industry solution and not generate unnecessary effort.

Many companies from the working group are already active in the field of OPC UA: