A Social Media Milestone

PI is celebrating a number of social media milestones. Our YouTube channels have been producing useful videos for five years. @AllThingsPROFI has been tweeting since July of 2008. But the ten-year milestone (almost to the day!) goes to the PROFIblog.

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Welcome to Automation’s Evolution

An automation evolution exploration from industry veteran Carl Henning. I’ve been around PROFIBUS and then PROFINET for a couple decades now and I have to admit that I’m still excited by these technologies. It’s been fun to watch them mature and grow. I’ve been doing automation for decades before that so I’ve seen the long arc of automation’s evolutionary growth. Our evolutionary position is currently the Industrial Internet of Things. And it is an evolution I believe.

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The Data-Driven Factory

Being in the business of moving data with PROFINET, references to the data-driven factory appeal to PI. Appealing as that is, it’s an incomplete story. Like a word-driven blog post. Random words collected do not a blog post make. Random data collected does not a factory drive. Data is the raw material.

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PROFIsafe is First National Safety Standard in China

Following successful standardization of PROFIBUS and PROFINET in China, PROFIsafe – the first and only communication-based safety standard in China – has now been elevated to the status of a Chinese national standard. This is further evidence that the world leading PI technologies are highly regarded in China – not just because of their high quality but also based on their large installed base and reliable organization.

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The Social Engineer

How can you tell an engineer has social skills? When he’s talking to you, he’s looking at your shoes. Actually, he’s probably messaging you on his smartphone, even if he’s sitting beside you. The electronically-social engineer has many non-face-to-face options for communications. Here are some suggested sites for the electronically-social engineer.

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PI to Start Encoder Certification

To ensure that everything runs smoothly in drive technology, clean interfaces between all components involved are required. To further ensure the interoperability of drive and motion control applications, certification of products with the Encoder profile will be available starting immediately.

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Successful Year for IO-Link

2015 ended successfully for IO-Link. At SPC IPC Drives, 39 members of the IO-Link member community presented 170 devices and components under the motto "Enabler for Industrie 4.0“. The various sensors, actuators, masters, and services illustrate the possibilities of high-performance point-to-point communication. More and more companies are convinced of the benefits.

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Impressive Networking

For PI, the Industrial Internet of Things is a subset of Industrie 4.0. Karsten Schneider, Chairman of PI explains how PROFINET (and PI) fit in Industrie 4.0. Openness, data speeds and volumes, and collaboration on standards secure PROFINET's role.

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