How it works
See the system move. Not just the result.
Astara keeps the chain visible from machine signal to operational decision, so your team can see where information comes from and what it means.
Connect existing equipment
Start with the signals your PLC-controlled machines already produce, or begin with a structured import of production and alarm history.
Collect at the edge
A read-only site gateway gathers machine state, product code, production totals and alarms, even when the WAN is unavailable.
Improve with evidence
See production, lost time and recurring issues together, then give the next shift a reliable operational record.
The Astara chain
From a PLC signal to a decision-ready shift.
Each layer has one job. The gateway observes the equipment, keeps the evidence on site until it is delivered, and passes an authenticated record to the workspace where your team sees what happened.
Machine / PLC
Source signalsMachine state, product code, production totals and alarms.
Astara Edge
Read-only collectorOne site gateway keeps an independent OPC UA session for each machine.
Local buffer
Store and forwardCollected events stay safe on the gateway through a network outage.
Secure uplink
Authenticated HTTPSBatched delivery retries until the cloud acknowledges each event.
Astara workspace
Operational contextThe evidence becomes machine states, downtime and shift insight.
The Astara gateway
A compact industrial computer at your site, one for up to 3 machines. It reads your PLCs over OPC UA and needs no software on your PLCs or office computers.
The signals
Four signals. One clear story.
Astara deliberately starts small. A handful of well-understood signals is enough to explain production and lost time.
Machine state
Running, stopped, idle or faulted. Each change starts a new timed interval.
Product code
What the machine was making, so every count and stop belongs to a product.
Production total
The machine's counter. Resets, rollovers and late readings are handled.
Fault code
Optional. The raw PLC number, explained by that machine's own alarm list.
When the network drops
Nothing is lost. Nothing is guessed.
The gateway writes every event to its own storage before sending it, and deletes it only when the cloud confirms it arrived. A batch that fails is retried with a growing pause, so a long outage is caught up in order once the connection returns.
A machine that cannot be reached is shown as unknown time, never as stopped, and the gateway reports its own health separately. You can always tell a stopped machine from a lost connection.
More questionsFeatures
More from Astara
The workspace
Dashboards, downtime reasons, plans and reports.
Read moreDowntime tracking
See where operating time went, and why.
Read moreMachine monitoring
Live state and production across every site.
Read moreOEE
The availability and performance evidence behind OEE.
Read morePLC data collection
Read-only OPC UA collection at the edge.
Read moreFood & packaging
Production visibility for food and packaging lines.
Read moreStart with one machine. Make the next shift easier to understand.
Bring a machine, a spreadsheet or simply a question. We'll show you what a clearer operational story can look like.
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