---
title: "wattiot | Reel traceability by axis and position"
description: "Every reel with the axis it was wound on, its tension, its length and its passes: wattiot reads the PLC over EtherNet/IP and links it all by context."
source: "https://wattiot.io/en/use-cases/traceability/"
language: "en"
---

# Production traceability

> Every reel with the axis it was wound on, its tension, its length and its passes: wattiot reads the PLC over EtherNet/IP and links it all by context.

**Use case · Traceability**

wattiot reads from the PLC over EtherNet/IP which reel sits on each revolver axis and gathers its tension, length and passes into one record per reel.

## The situation: A faulty reel comes back. Which axis was it wound on?

A winding line with two twelve-axis revolvers, E-1 to E-12. The revolver turns, each axis takes a reel, and the PLC knows at every instant which reel sits on which axis, at what tension and at what speed.

But that fact lives for an instant. When a reel comes back with a defect, rebuilding its history means cross-checking the MES, the PLC and the shift log by hand.

| With wattiot | Today, without wattiot |
| --- | --- |
| Every reel, with the axis it was made on. | Rebuilt by hand, if at all. |
| Tension, speed and length, per reel, not per hour. | Shift averages. |
| The axis that drifts, before the complaint. | Found when the reel comes back. |

## The schema: From the revolver to every reel's record.

The PLC already knows everything needed. wattiot Edge reads it over EtherNet/IP without changing its program, and wattiot Core sorts it by reel.

1. **Revolvers** — Twelve axes each. The revolver turns and each axis takes a reel. → _Wiring (PLC I/O)_
2. **PLC** — Knows which reel sits on each axis, at what tension and at what speed. → _EtherNet/IP (CIP)_
3. **wattiot Edge** — Reads the PLC's tags over EtherNet/IP. Read-only: the program does not change. → _TLS 1.3 (encrypted stream)_
4. **wattiot Core** — Opens a context for every reel and every axis, and links them in time.

## From data to result: One reel, linked to every position it passes through.

Every change of id opens a «Reel» context; every turn of the revolver, an «Axis» context. Crossed in time, they say which axis each reel sat on and what the signals measured meanwhile.

1. **PLC signals** — Id, active axis, tension and speed, exactly as the PLC publishes them.
2. **Contexts** — «Reel», «Axis» and «Winding active» open and close by themselves with each change.
3. **Link** — Reel × Axis: 63452342 was wound on E-5, from 14:12 to 14:31, in three passes.
4. **Breakdown** — Every KPI, per reel and per axis. The axis that drifts stands out.

_Timeline of the winder between 14:00 and 14:48: the «Reel», «Axis» and «Winding active» contexts and the upper tension; reel 63452342 coincides with axis E-5 from 14:12 to 14:31, in three passes. Beside it, the mean upper tension broken down by axis over the last 90 days, with axis E-9 9% above the rest. Sample data._

## Spec sheet

| Spec sheet |  |
| --- | --- |
| Source | The winding line's PLC |
| Protocol | EtherNet/IP (CIP), tag reads. Read-only |
| Signals | Reel id, active axis, upper and lower tension, speed and length |
| Operational contexts | «Reel» and «Axis» on value change; «Winding active» on a condition |
| Link | Reel × Axis, by overlap in time |
| KPIs | Mean tension, length and passes per reel; time per axis |
| Reports | Breakdown per reel and per axis, as PDF |
| On site | One wattiot Edge on the PLC's network |

## Other cases

- [Every kWh, with its order and its shift](https://wattiot.io/en/use-cases/energy/) — wattiot reads power from the line's OPC-UA server, totalises it into kWh and splits it across the orders and shifts that were running.
- [Your plant, watched even when nobody is there](https://wattiot.io/en/use-cases/analytics/) — wattiot learns what is normal for each machine, spots what leaves that range, and an agent has the report ready before the shift starts.

## Does this look like your plant?

We will show you on a scenario like yours: what to connect first, what you will see and which plan fits.

[Book a demo](https://wattiot.io/en/demo)

---

- Equivalent HTML page: https://wattiot.io/en/use-cases/traceability/
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