In order to support the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry, promote the implementation of the “Made in China 2025” national strategy and the “Internet Plus” action plan under the new economic normal, PI-China actively responds to the call for national “mass entrepreneurship / innovation.”
Having started the “PROFINET Angel Fund” project in December 2015, the goal was to encourage independent innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises, and stimulate college students to start a business. The project is aimed at spurring development of automation products based on PROFINET technology. The scope is not limited to any specific vertical industry, company size, product type, or project. Any manufacturer or university interested in developing PROFINET-enabled devices can submit an application. In addition, PI-China also provides free one-day PROFINET product development solution seminars and micro-fairs. They support solution providers developing customized training for PROFINET device makers and also provide localization services for PROFINET device testing. Such an environment has made many vendors confident when creating new PROFINET devices.
Through three years of hard work, the current “PROFINET Angel Fund” project has gained fruitful achievements. 34 manufacturers were selected for the “PROFINET Angel Fund” project including: controllers, frequency converters, servo drives, weighing instruments, valve terminals, gateways, encoders, RFID readers, and intelligent modules. 18 local PROFINET devices have completed research and development work, and 9 devices have obtained a PROFINET certificate from PI. In particular, the first servo drive controller with the PROFIdrive profile was officially released at the Shanghai Industrial Fair in September 2018. Many other devices are also in the pipeline either in R&D or nearly ready for testing.
For adding a PROFINET interface to your device or for the development of a PROFINET device, local vendors can reference “The Easy Way to PROFINET” and “Recommendation for Design and Implementation of PROFINET Devices” documents in Chinese language. More details are available at the PI-China website (www.pi-china.org).