The experts of the PI Community enjoyed meeting their customers and interested parties in person at SPS on November 8-10, 2022. Covering an area of more than 260 m², new innovations were showcased at the joint booth of PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) with numerous co-exhibitors. Digitalization is driving technology development at PI. The requirements from various user industries are setting the direction for the further development of new and existing technologies in the fields of industrial communication and data continuity.
TSN and OPC UA for PROFINET play a key role here. In this context, integrated modern security concepts are becoming a must for all automation systems. Trade fair visitors experienced live demos and presentations on the topics of TSN, security, PROFINET, and OPC UA. Among them was a special highlight this year. The new TSN demo offered visitors not only the latest technical implementations but also a greater variety of products.
With Ethernet-APL (Advanced Physical Layer), Ethernet-based communication systems can be used in process automation without any restrictions. With the completion of the specifications and guidelines, everything is set for PROFINET over APL to be used in the relevant industries. The Process Automation live demo provided an overview of the PROFINET-enabled process automation products available on the market. A new addition is a series of PROFINET products with an Ethernet-APL physical layer. Visitors had the opportunity to interactively operate a plant structure based on PROFINET and PROFIBUS PA. In addition, the wide variety of PI technologies was demonstrated on the Factory Automation Wall using numerous different products as examples. The advantages of the PROFIdrive application profile in the respective application classes was also presented with an interoperability demo, and IO-Link was again on-show with a large number of different products from numerous manufacturers.
The topic of functional safety was presented with a PROFIsafe live demo and an OPC UA Safety live demo. At the IO-Link Safety Wall, IO-Link presented FS (Functionally Safe) master and FS device products as well as development aids and pre-certified stacks. A new feature was an IO-Link Safety live demo, which provided a hands-on demonstration of its functionality.
For the first time at this year’s SPS, PI presented omlox, the locating technology newly added to its industrial communication portfolio. Together, the community members presented the first open locating technology based on ultra-wideband as well as a series of use-cases. In addition, visitors received first-hand information on the MTP (Module Type Package) technology, which was also recently added to PI’s technology portfolio. MTP can be used to build complex production systems in a modular way and is highly flexible with regards to their reconfiguration.