Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced that its OpreX Open Automation SI Kit for Open Process Automation systems has been certified for conformance with the OPC Unified Architecture profile of the Open Process Automation Standard. Yokogawa officials say this a first in the process industry.

OPA is an initiative of The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum, which promotes the adoption of an open, secure and interoperable process control architecture that will enable the flexible combination of devices and software from different manufacturers.

The ability to construct systems without being dependent on any one vendor will ensure both flexibility and scalability, leaders say.

Granted by the OPC Foundation, this OPC UA certification officially confirms that release 1.02.10 of Yokogawa’s Open Automation SI Kit conforms with the OPC UA client/server communication profile defined in the O‑PAS standard. Certification for conformance with the O‑PAS OPC UA profile confirms that systems with the Open Automation SI Kit installed can provide standard, reliable communication and data exchange. According to Yokogawa officials, this enables seamless interoperability between O‑PAS components supplied by Yokogawa and other vendors.

As a member of OPAF, which consists of 95 companies and other organizations, Yokogawa has carried out multiple OPA-related demonstration projects in collaboration with major oil companies.