A Free MTConnect App for Your iPhone

“Free”—as in “download at no charge.” Joel Neidig, a systems engineer at ITAMCO has developed an application (“app”) so that he and his coworkers can take advantage of MTConnect as a communications protocol that enables their iPhones to monitor machine tools at their plant in Plymouth, Indiana. ITAMCO is a member of the MTConnect Technical Advisory Group, a group of developers and implementers guiding the advancement of the MTConnect standard, which is designed for passing data between machine tools, various kinds of manufacturing equipment and higher applications. Joel has been identified as one the “thought leaders” in the MTConnect community.

Joel will be making this app available as a free download from the Apple’s iTunes App Store. The app is open-source, which means that users are free to modify, customize and enhance it as they see fit — and will share the results freely with others, Joel hopes. The app is currently in review. Joel expects it to be approved by IMTS, September 13-18, 2010 in Chicago.

This and many other new apps based on MTConnect will be featured at the Emerging Technology Center at IMTS. The development of these apps is extremely important. They prove the value and viability of this communications standard. That is the main point of my most recent Mark: My Word column, which appears in our September issue. Read it here.

For a background article on MTConnect, click here.