At an early stage, PI along with users, such as NAMUR, started to intensively work out how PROFINET can be deployed in all areas of the process industry. Very quickly it became clear that PI can offer with PROFINET a complete solution package.
PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) is making strong progress on Industrie 4.0. Main work is done in the teams of the PI working group "I4.0@PI" with sub-groups for individual topics. The requirements are being closely harmonized with users and senior experts from the various participating companies.
There are many new products to announce this month including fiber optic repeaters and power supply connectivity from Belden, PROFINET redundancy from Comtrol, fiber optic IRT from HMS, Ethernet switches from Siemens and IO-Link sensors and decentralized controls from Turck.
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From the domain expertise required to filter the required data in the correct way to expanding automation and IT networking knowledge requirements, the Internet of Things is dramatically altering the duties and expectations for control engineers.
PROFIBUS PA cables can land in hazardous environments; Ethernet cables cannot --yet. However, PROFINET is still a great backbone in process applications for today and tomorrow.
There are many new products to announce this month. Softing has introduced a PROFIBUS DP master for Xilinx FPGAs. Hilscher has announced a gateway to bridge Real Time Ethernet networks. Pepperl+Fuchs has introduced device libraries into its SegmentChecker. Comtrol has announced PROFINET certification for their IO-Link master. Siemens has released power modules for their drives, plus upgraded connectivity for their reluctance motors. Molex has introduced an IP67 PROFINET IO-Link master.
The PI North America "year" revolves around our annual General Assembly Meeting held every September here in Scottsdale, AZ. This year's installment marks the 22nd anniversary, since the organization was founded as the PROFIBUS Trade Organization in 1994. With the 2016 GAM now in our rearview mirror, we can reflect on the progress made during the year leading up to, and during the event.
