Frank Moritz, Executive Board member for PI International, shares his insights on the potential for IO-Link Safety and why it is the next logical step in the evolution of IO-Link technology.

With the market beginning to see the value and benefit of Ethernet-APL, the core features of PROFINET – stable communication, high availability, fast configuration, and improved fault diagnostics – are being put to use on instrumentation in the field of process plants.

Check out all the great updates to the PROFINET Community Stack, including a demo application to help make integration easier.

SXP is a new protocol that will be integrated into the PROFINET stack version 2.5. A new SXP Demo has been developed to help device manufacturers and solution providers understand this technology.

Four new PROFINET products to announce this month: intrinsically-safe point-level switching from Endress+Hauser; electromagnetic flow meter design from Promwad; PC cards with PCI Express from Hilscher, and coolant flow control from Proteus.

Consorzio PI Italia welcomes its first IO-Link Competence Center. And Consorzio PI Italia takes center stage at chem.tech.2026 with a talk on Module Type Package (MTP).

PI North America is sponsoring a PROFINET Plugfest on April 15–16 in Minneapolis, MN hosted by Emerson. Engineers from PROFINET product manufacturers are invited to come test their alpha-, beta-, or already-certified PROFINET products with various controllers.

Forklifts continue to be the backbone of modern distribution centers and logistics facilities, however, they operate with limited visibility with little insight on routes, congestion, dwell times, and utilization patterns. omlox is helping forklifts optimize material flow, improve safety, and increase operational efficiency.