PI Denmark conducted a special conference on May 18, 2017 with Chairman Karsten Schneider as key speaker on the subject “PROFINET and IO-Link – Communication Technology for Industrie 4.0.”
About 30 participants received an introduction to where PROFINET is today and where the technology is headed. Karsten Schneider’s lecture was also a confirmation that the PROFINET profile is not locked, and participants got a little peek into the future development trend.
IO-Link is internationally strong with 47% growth from 2015 to 2016. PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) has been responsible for the administration and marketing of IO-Link from its beginning. The serial IO-Link sensors are applicable in the lower layer of the automation pyramid, and the advantage of the use is that in addition to the digital signal, technology allows additional information about parameters like operating hours or maintenance mode.
Jørn Poulsen, CEO of ifm in Denmark, presented the technological details and characteristics of both IO-Link sensors and actuators as well as for master modules. It was also interesting to see the user cases that Jørn Poulsen concluded with his presentation.
The conference ended with a company visit to Automate in Silkeborg, where the participants were given the opportunity to see something special – a complete dairy for teaching purposes only – named Automate Academy (see the article New Dairy in Silkeborg – But without Milk). CEO Klaus Dam initiated the visit with a presentation of Automate and continued to give us an insight into the strategic thinking that is the basis of the dairy project. Afterwards he showed us around the well-organized company and we ended up in the dairy where we got the technical review. As in Automate’s automation projects all over the world, PROFINET and PROFIBUS have been used for communication in the teaching dairy.
