Here is a pictorial tour of the PI booth, featuring the technologies presented. You can click any of the images below for a larger version.
PROFINET. There were two PROFINET walls with many products. Here’s one of them:
PROFIBUS. PROFIBUS still plays an important role, especially in Process Automation. Here are the two walls highlighting PROFIBUS PA and its ability to change instruments of the same type from one brand to another without the need for a computer to reconfigure anything:
PROFIsafe. Two walls featured PROFIsafe, our functional safety application profile that covers process, discrete and motion control applications. In addition to the short video walkthrough below (note the Automated Guided Vehicle – AGV), you can find detailed explanations from a previous show on the YouTube PROFIblogger channel.
PROFIenergy. Much has happened since last year’s SPS Report on PROFIenergy. More products are appearing for PROFIenergy. Below, Working Group Chair, Norbert Brousek explains:
Drives. Almost every drive manufacturer has a PROFIBUS or PROFINET connectivity option. Some of them use our PROFIdrive application profile to arrange the parameters in a consistent fashion; others just treat the drive as IO. Either way, your drive manufacturer probably offers PROFIBUS or PROFINET.
IO-Link. Even though IO-Link is fieldbus-neutral, it is a great complementary technology to PROFINET. There were many vendors showing IO-Link products around the show which I’ll cover in a follow up post. Here’s the IO-Link wall in the PI booth:
A special thanks to PROFInews editor, Geoff Hodgkinson, for the good photos; the rest are taken with my own Brownie… er, little point-and-shoot digital camera.
Coming up next: PROFIBUS and PROFINET news.
–Carl Henning