The PI Booth at the SPS/IPC/Drives Show hosted hundreds of show visitors seeking information on PROFINET, PROFIBUS, and IO-Link. Trade press editors flocked to the PI Press Conference on Wednesday morning for additional news.
PI Booth
The 3,500 sq. ft. booth was themed “PROFINET – the Backbone for Industrie 4.0.” It featured:
- New PROFINET machine demo
- 36 member kiosks
- PROFINET product wall
- IO-Link wall with 220 devices from 48 manufacturers
- New process automation demo
- PROFIdrive demo
- PROFIsafe display
- PROFIenergy display
Around the booth (click to enlarge):
The desktop cellphone holder maker produced Lot Size of One products specified by the show visitor. Here it is in action:
SPS/IPC/Drives Show
“As in the past, the strong focus on business that has become one of the hallmarks of SPS IPC Drives was clearly evident among the booths at its 27th edition. The event further solidified its international standing by featuring 523 companies from 44 countries besides Germany,” said the show manager.
Key figures at a glance:
- Exhibitors: 1,601 (2015: 1,668)
- Exhibition space: 1,315,350 sq ft – 122,200 sqm (2015: 122,800 sqm)
- Visitors: 63,291 (2015: 64,386)
- Industrie 4.0 was highlighted and many booths displayed their companies’ connection to Industrie 4.0 and OPC UA.
Next year’s event will be held from November 28-30, 2017 at Nuremberg’s exhibition center. American visitors will be pleased to note that next year’s show is the week after Thanksgiving.
Press Conference
PI traditionally hosts a press conference on the Wednesday of the show. This year’s news included:
Asset Management
As the growth of PROFINET continues, new customer requirements for additional Asset Management functions have been incorporated. Added is the ability to record assets to make maintenance and operation easier despite increasing complexity of processes and related machines.
See the details in this PROFINEWS article, Asset Management with PROFINET.
Industrie 4.0
Use cases have been created and development continues in the Industrie 4.0 Working Group. The combination of requirements and technical possibilities has resulted in a focus on the following main areas:
- TSN
- IPv6
- Semantics
- Security
- OPC UA
Read more in First Results on the Way to Industrie 4.0.
Process
PROFIBUS has long been successful in connecting process devices and providing configuration and diagnostic information from them and to them. With increasing needs for these latter functions, the increased bandwidth of Ethernet is needed. Enter PROFINET. PROFINET is already used widely as a network backbone in the process industries, but further standardization is desired. PI in cooperation with NAMUR is doing just that.
See the article New Process Automation Profile 4.0 for more.
IO-Link Test Centers
With the continuing growth of IO-Link, support has been expanded from the five IO-Link competence centers to include three IO-Link test labs. Press release
PROFINET testing update
The automatic test tool for PROFINET continues to automate test procedures. It’s available as a free download for members. News
CC- Link cooperation
The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) and PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) have delivered on their announcement to allow easy interoperability between CC-Link IE and PROFINET – as the new joint specification is released at SPS/IPC/Drives 2016. The new specification builds on an initial announcement at 2015’s fair, where both network organizations promised to maximize the transparency between the two protocols. Both the CLPA and PI completed the new specification within just one year to respond to users’ requirements. Press release
At the PI Press Conference (click to enlarge):
An informal account of the show is available on the PROFIblog with additional photos and videos.