Process control systems in industrial manufacturing — from chemical batch reactors to food processing lines to industrial coating systems — generate continuous streams of sensor data, setpoint commands, and alarm events that must be monitored, logged, and made accessible to process engineers and quality managers in real time. FSS Technology delivers IoT-based process monitoring and data integration systems that connect PLCs and SCADA systems to cloud platforms via Modbus, OPC-UA, and MQTT interfaces, providing centralised multi-site process visibility, historical trending, alarm management, and SCADA-compatible data export for process optimisation and compliance reporting.
PLC Integration and Protocol Support
Modbus RTU and TCP
Modbus remains the most widely deployed industrial communication protocol, supported by virtually every PLC, variable frequency drive, and process instrument manufactured in the past 30 years. FSS IoT gateways implement Modbus RTU master (RS-485) and Modbus TCP client protocols, polling configured register maps from PLCs and instruments at configurable intervals, normalising register values to engineering units, and forwarding telemetry to Azure IoT Hub via MQTT. FSS Modbus gateways handle multi-device RS-485 buses (up to 32 slaves per bus), manage polling timeouts and communication error recovery, and buffer readings locally during network outages for later upload.
OPC-UA for Modern PLC Integration
OPC-UA (Unified Architecture) provides a secure, structured data model for modern PLC and SCADA integration. FSS implements OPC-UA client software on industrial gateway hardware and cloud-hosted OPC-UA servers that expose process data to SCADA systems from multiple OPC-UA data sources in a unified namespace. OPC-UA’s built-in security model — certificate-based authentication, encrypted communication, role-based access control — provides enterprise-grade security for process data that Modbus lacks.
SCADA Data Export and Historian Integration
FSS process monitoring platforms export data in formats compatible with major SCADA and historian systems: OSIsoft PI via PI Web API, Wonderware Historian via Industrial SQL, and generic CSV/JSON exports for custom reporting tools. This SCADA integration enables FSS’s cloud IoT platform to augment existing SCADA investments with cloud scalability, remote access, and advanced analytics rather than replacing proven control infrastructure.
Chemical Batch Reactor
Modbus RTU integration with 12 PLCs in a chemical batch processing plant. Real-time temperature, pressure, and flow monitoring. Batch record generation with complete process parameter history for GMP compliance documentation.
Industrial Coating Line
OPC-UA integration with Siemens S7 PLCs on an automotive coating line. Cloud historian stores 5-year process parameter history. Statistical process control analysis identifies coating parameter correlations with final product quality.
Multi-Site Production Monitoring
Unified process dashboard for a manufacturer with 4 production facilities. FSS IoT gateways at each site forward process telemetry to centralised Azure platform; management dashboard compares production efficiency and OEE across all sites.
FSS Process Control Integration Expertise
FSS Technology’s engineers have deep experience integrating with industrial PLCs from Siemens, Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi, and Omron via Modbus, OPC-UA, and proprietary protocols. Our industrial IoT gateways have been deployed in chemical, food processing, automotive, and manufacturing environments. Contact FSS to discuss your process control monitoring requirements.