Mike Bryant, Executive Director PI NA
The 19th annual general annual meeting of PI North America in Phoenix wrapped up on Thursday September 26. Michael Bryant, executive director, remarked that plans for a 20th anniversary celebration next yea are already in the works. In his opening remarks, Bryant pointed to independent analysts who anoint leading market positions in North America to Profibus and Profinet technologies.
The purposes of these meetings include updating members on changes in the standards, marketing plans, and sharing stories about customer successes with Profibus and Profinet.
Four board members representing Siemens, GE Intelligent Platforms, Endress + Hauser and Phoenix Contact shared why their companies support “All Things Profi.” Scalability and flexibility of implementation was most often cited as reasons customers like Profibus and Profinet.
Profibus is the device-level network—the original fieldbus in the standard. Profibus PA is an implementation of the standard specifically for process automation. Profinet is the Ethernet implementation that comes in three flavors that support standard Ethernet for general purpose device networking and two types of real-time, deterministic implementations for applications such as coordinated motion control.
Fieldbus technologies (a specific form of industrial networks) were originally touted a method to reduce wiring costs and reduce installation time. Users quickly discovered that the number one benefit was availability of device and system diagnostics. These quickly earned favor with electricians and other maintenance technicians when they discovered the time savings, as well as savings in the grief of prolonged trouble-shooting, provided. This fact merited a feature presentation on diagnostic information and tools available with Profibus and Profinet.
Presentations on using Profinet on off-shore oil rigs and using Profibus in the production of spirits at Jim Beam brought a final user focus to members.
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