... To be perfect is to change often. -Winston Churchill. With each PROFINEWS edition, the news changes and becomes ever more engaging. For example, later this month at the SPS/IPC/Drives tradeshow in Nuremberg, prepare for some exciting announcements from PI. In the meantime, I want to point out a few highlights in this issue.
Most of the talk surrounding the Industrial Internet of Things focuses on moving data upward and outward. Equally important is enabling your factory to handle incoming data.
The adoption of PROFIBUS and PROFINET in Brazil is growing rapidly. Two multi-billion dollar companies, Ambev, the world's fifth largest beer producer and Raizen, one of the world's largest sugar and ethanol producers, are both investing in the technologies.
When it comes to transmitting process variables, 4-20 mA is by far the most popular method. Digital fieldbuses such as PROFIBUS or PROFINET, however, are said to be more accurate and generally better than 4-20 mA. What isn’t discussed very often, however, is the extent of how much more accurate they are. This topic is the elephant in the control room.
PROFIBUS DPV1 Alarms are a special kind of extended diagnostic. Compared to normal extended diagnostics, Alarms require an additional acknowledgment “handshake” between the master (controller) PLC or DCS and the slave device.
Did you know that over 100 members now belong to the IO-Link community? IO-Link has established itself in the market faster than almost any other communication technology. At the market launch in 2009, there were 41 member companies to start. Now with the addition of Weiss Robotics in October, the 100th company has joined the member community.
PI provides a number of “Social Media” venues as service to the community of PROFINET and PROFIBUS users and beyond. From opinionated blog posts to educational videos, see the spectrum of PI Social Media.
HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, has become the first American school to join Phoenix Contact’s EduNet program. EduNet is an international education network that brings together schools and industry in the field of automation technology. The EduNet program includes donating equipment for the lab. This gives students hands-on access to several Phoenix Contact ILC controller and PROFINET starter kits, the same type of equipment they might use once they graduate and work on the manufacturing floor.
