Regional PI Associations (RPAs) from around the world gathered for their annual meeting in Sydney Australia and stayed to support PI Australia’s PROFIBUS & PROFINET Global Forum and Automation Innovation Summit (reported here). The PI annual meeting provided a platform to learn about technology developments and exchange ideas. The hosts provided several venues for the meeting, allowing the attendees to see a bit of Sydney as they moved between venues.
Topics included PROFINET, PROFIBUS PA, and IO-Link. Presentations of some RPAs highlighted the individual markets and activities in South Africa, Poland, Japan, Australia, Korea, USA, and Germany.
IO-Link. Several interesting developments are in the works for IO-Link to be announced at the SPS/IPC/Drives Show in November. Provision has been made for non-members of PI to participate in the increasing adoption of IO-Link, including mandatory certification testing and rules for use of the logo. It was reported that the automotive industry is increasingly using IO-Link.
PROFIBUS PA. There are now 88 case studies for PROFIBUS PA on the website (http://www.profibus.com/nc/technology/case-studies/ and select “PROFIBUS PA Technology”).
PROFINET. A preview of coming documentation and resources for diagnostics and grounding/shielding was provided. Work continues on showing the role of PROFINET in Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things. Announcements will be forthcoming. A new four-minute video was released showing the ease with which PROFINET can be added to automation devices:
Some short highlights from some RPAs around the world:
Korea. Recent seminars in Seoul and Busan covered “PROFINET, backbone of Smart Factory & Industry 4.0.” Presentation by PI Chairman Karsten Schneider preceded details of PROFINET technology, IIoT gateways, and live demos.
Poland. PROFINET is widely used in the extensive Polish automotive industry. PI Poland has participated in an automotive conference and is planning their own Industrie 4.0 conference. There are extensive partnerships with Polish universities.
Japan. PROFIBUS PA is the primary technology for PI Japan in their process-centric market although they have recently certified seven PROFINET devices. All DCS vendors have PROFIBUS connectivity although they may not advertise the fact. IO-Link is catching on in Japan.
USA. The cornerstone of PI North America activities are the seventeen PROFINET one-day training classes. MinutePROFINET videos continue to be very popular, being viewed 5,000 times per month. Targeted advertising is being run.
Next year’s meeting is expected to be in June in China.