At a joint symposium, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) and NAMUR e.V. discussed the use of Ethernet in the process industry. The goal of the event was to evaluate, coordinate and prioritize the requirements placed on an Ethernet communication system for process automation.
The IO-Link Community met in Frankfurt, Germany for its 16th IO-Link Interoperability Workshop. 75 participants from 33 companies spent both days intensively putting their new IO-Link devices through their paces. The participant turnout also set a new record in the number of different countries from which attending companies originated.
Did you know that IO-Link drastically reduces electrical installation costs? IO-Link results in significant cost savings even for classic binary sensors. For use as an installation system, IO-Link sensor hubs are available on the market that condense up to 16 binary sensors with one switching output or 8 sensors with two switching outputs (e.g. antivalent or Desina sensors) into a single serial IO-Link connection.
PI Brazil has had a full slate of meetings and activities including some featuring PI Chairman, Karsten Schneider. On November 9, PI Italy held their final PROFIBUS and PROFINET event of 2016 in the industrial district in southern Italy. PI Middle East is hosting another PROFIday featuring the food and beverage industry on November 15.
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.
The General Assembly Meeting is an opportunity to meet face-to-face with members, end-users, and the press. Principally an open forum for discussion, the event provides members with access to other members in a noncompetitive setting. This year was particularly engaging with many notable presentations on the current state of the organization as well as its future direction.
In addition to providing our members with a forum for discussion about past and future activities, the General Assembly Meeting is an opportunity to hear from end-users. End users present their cutting edge applications using the PROFIBUS and PROFINET technologies. Of note were the number of case studies involving wireless and safety that push the boundaries of what's imaginable through automation.
