PI North America, in cooperation with the PROFI Interface Center, organized the third successful North American PROFINET plugfest, hosted by Phoenix Contact in Houston, TX on September 19-20. Twenty engineers from nine companies brought six controllers and more than a dozen I/O devices to the Plugfest.
Participating companies included:
- Danfoss
- Dunkermotoren
- Emerson
- Endress + Hauser
- InduSol
- Pepperl + Fuchs
- Phoenix Contact
- Siemens
- Yaskawa
All PROFINET products must be certified in accredited test labs, but the Plugfest provided the opportunity to evaluate those products in a very large network. Some of the products were nearing final development, so the Plugfest provided a chance to evaluate them before formal certification. Testing was carried out in small groups around individual controllers with the devices circulating among the various controllers prior to creating one large network.
The I/O devices were many and varied, ranging from VFDs and servo drives to APL switches and devices. The success of the event led the attendees to request another one. A PROFINET Plugfest will be scheduled for the coming year.