In Germany, the PI Konferenz saw record attendance. Also in Germany, Frank Welzel from HARTING was elected as a new member of the PNO Advisory Board, following the departure of Uwe Gräff, also of HARTING. Meanwhile in nearby Belgium, the IO-Link Group there held a successful exhibition at the Indumation 2019 Fair.
The rash of new technologies confronting users today is becoming more complex. PI has to assess which technological developments are important for communication and which aren’t. This also leads to closer cooperation with the OPC Foundation, eCl@ss, FDI, AIDA, and NAMUR, for example.
Safety over OPC UA based on PROFIsafe: one year ago, the OPC Foundation and PI issued a memorandum of understanding for this joint concept. The specification will now soon be published and is available for OPC UA-based controller-controller communication.
True to the motto “PROFINET - The Backbone of Industrie 4.0”, PI is participating with its joint booth at this year's Hannover Messe from April 1 to 5, 2019. The main topic for PI, the implementation of industrial communication for Industrie 4.0, is the core of the joint booth.
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Efficiency, whether it’s on the production line or in engineering design, is the primary goal in manufacturing today. Otto Bock deploys a control system devised with 18 smart drives. It’s based on a state of the art PROFINET network for process control and automation.
New products this month include a new stepper controller from AMCI, PROFINET device redundancy for TPS-1 chips from Phoenix Contact, enhanced PROFINET capability for drives from Schneider Electric, and the MindSphere World from Siemens.
The month of April will be busy for the various Regional PI Associations (RPAs) and PI Training Centers (PITCs) around the world. There are many trainings and events going on to give you an opportunity to interact with our many 'PROFInetworkers' across the globe.
The time until a new technology is established, its finer points are clarified, and users accept it is usually suspenseful, sometimes nerve-racking, and always exciting. That’s how it’s been for the IO-Link community for the past decade, but now IO-Link has arrived on the market and is being used across the globe.