Simulated pharmaceutical manufacturing process with end-to-end data historization from FrameworX → PostgreSQL → Snowflake.

How-to → Examples → Industry → Pharmaceutical Tablet Plant Example

Overview

The PharmaTablet example demonstrates a complete pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing plant built in FrameworX, covering three production stages: granulation, tablet compression, and film coating. Simulated process data is collected in real time, historized to PostgreSQL, and synchronized to Snowflake every 10 seconds — showcasing a full OT/IT data pipeline with no custom middleware.

Architecture

[ValueSimulator] --> [FrameworX Runtime] --> [Unified Namespace]
                                                      |
                          +---------------------------+---------------------------+
                          |                           |                           |
                      [HMI Display]            [Historian]                  [Scripts]
                                                      |                           |
                                              [PostgreSQL]               (10s cycle)
                                             PharmaDatabase                      |
                                              PharmaTable               [Snowflake DW]

Unified Namespace (UNS)

All tags are organized under an ISA-95 compliant Unified Namespace — a single logical hierarchy that decouples data consumers (HMI, Historian, Scripts) from the underlying device layer. Replacing the simulator with a real PLC requires only a device binding change; nothing else in the solution needs to be updated.

Historian — PostgreSQL

All process variables are continuously historized via the FrameworX Historian module into a PostgreSQL database (PharmaDatabase, table PharmaTable). The Historian handles timestamping, compression, and deadband filtering automatically.

Snowflake Synchronization

A server-side script (write_postgre_to_snowflake) runs on a 10-second cycle, reading new rows from PostgreSQL and writing them incrementally to Snowflake. This creates a near-real-time bridge to the cloud data warehouse for analytics and reporting workloads.

HMI Overview

The MainPage display shows a plant-wide process overview in a single screen, organized left to right following the physical production flow.

Two live TrendCharts at the bottom track Press parameters (Compression Force, Weight, Thickness) and thermal data (Granulator Temperature, Coating Inlet/Outlet Temps) over a 5-minute rolling window.

Requirements

Getting Started

1. Download and open PharmaTablet.dbsln in the FrameworX Designer.
2. Configure PostgreSQL — update the historian connector connection string. The table PharmaTable is created automatically on first run.
3. Configure Snowflake — open the write_postgre_to_snowflake script and set your account, warehouse, database, schema, username, and password at the top of the file.
4. Start the Runtime (F5). The simulator starts immediately, historization begins, and the Snowflake sync script activates on its 10-second cycle.
5. Open MainPage to view the live process overview.

In this section...