Guangzhou Tongwei Smart Technology Co., Ltd. (Tongwei Smart) makes industrial gateways, expansion modules, and an AIoT operations platform, used to add connection and operations capability to equipment and projects. The gateway and the platform are not two overlapping builds. The former faces field equipment and network conditions. The latter faces management and collaboration across equipment and across sites.
After access, it still has to be usable correctly
At CIIF 2026, Siemens released Rules for Reconfigurable Modelling of Production Systems in Smart Factories, which is concerned with how different equipment and systems express behaviour and interact. Beckhoff showed TwinCAT CoAgent, which connects a large language model into the engineering development process. These are standards and tools released by the vendors. They cannot be used to say that Tongwei’s existing products already conform to that standard, or already include the same kind of function. What they point to together is this: the next step in equipment networking, besides connecting the protocol, is to make the meaning of the data clear, and to make it usable by later systems.
Gateway: connect the field steadily, and handle change as configured
Tongwei Smart’s gateways fall into two types. Xingmen (SG) is a rack-mount edge gateway, suited to equipment rooms, power-distribution rooms, and sites that need centralised collection. Xingkong (BEC) is a companion edge gateway, for DIN-rail mounting in distribution boxes, installation inside equipment, and networking supply for conventional equipment. The specific model and interfaces still have to be checked against the project documents.
Later iterations can follow three lines. One is to write the equipment template clearly: besides the protocol, organise the model, registers, points, units, the meaning of states, and error codes, so that repeated adaptation is reduced. Two is to assess on-site processing capability by project, including offline buffering, resume-and-backfill after recovery, local rules, and event upload. These functions are implemented according to the specific product and configuration. Three is to write engineering delivery into selection: the equipment list, wiring, network requirements, platform interfaces, and acceptance items should be confirmed at the selection stage as far as possible.
Platform: from equipment online to work that has a record
For the AIoT operations platform, showing that equipment is online is only the starting point. What is more worth doing is to connect the equipment register, the data model, alarm rules, the responsible person, work orders, inspection, and reports into one process that can be traced. Multi-site customers also need unified viewing and layered permissions. Equipment makers and partners will look at OEM pages, SaaS, and API connection.
Assisted analysis can be added step by step, for example to help summarise historical exceptions, organise reports, or mark trends worth reviewing. What is stated externally should focus on visual monitoring, active alarms, the operations loop, and assisted analysis that has been verified in the field. Unverified automatic diagnosis, and prediction accuracy, are not offered as a ready-made commitment.
How they are combined depends on the systems the customer already has
When an equipment maker already has its own platform, the first assessment can be whether the gateway, expansion modules, and interfaces can connect to the existing system. When the customer needs to manage several sites as one, then assess the AIoT operations platform, or local or private deployment. Deployment method, data ownership, permissions, interface scope, and remote-control policy are all written clearly at the project stage.
The edge and the platform should not be planned apart. A sounder combination is this: the gateway connects the field information steadily, the platform manages it, and operations staff can receive alarms and feed back the result. Start from one representative piece of equipment or one site, verify access and the process first, and then decide whether to copy it in volume.
Common questions
- What do the gateway and the platform each take responsibility for?
- The gateway takes field equipment access, data conversion, and edge processing as implemented by configuration. The platform takes a unified equipment register, monitoring, alarms, and operations collaboration. When the customer already has a platform, the division of work is set by the project scope.
- The customer already has a platform. Is another one still required?
- Not necessarily. First assess whether the gateway, expansion modules, and open interfaces can connect to the existing platform. When unified management of equipment or of the operations process is needed, then assess the AIoT operations platform or local deployment.
- How do I choose between Xingmen and Xingkong?
- Xingmen is a rack-mount edge gateway. Xingkong is a companion edge gateway. The final selection has to combine mounting method, interfaces, equipment count, network, and field conditions.