PI NEWS

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EDGAR KÜSTER, CHAIRMAN OF PI 1996 - 2007

On behalf my colleagues it is with great sadness that I report the passing of Edgar Küster, Chairman of PI, the organization representing PROFIBUS and PROFINET around the world. Edgar, who was also Chairman of the PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation in Germany, became PI Chairman in 1996 and has since guided PROFIBUS to become the world's most successful fieldbus. His vision and openness were instrumental in establishing the worldwide network of Regional PI Associations (RPAs) which, with over 1400 member companies, underpins the global success of PROFIBUS.

He travelled widely in support of PI objectives, particularly to China and Japan where he understood, better than most, the important future that lay ahead there for PROFIBUS and PROFINET. In recent years his focus increasingly turned towards PROFINET and his strategic thinking was, until the last, still being directed towards making PROFINET even more successful than PROFIBUS. Edgar's contribution towards the world of automation was far greater than most people realise. That was due as much to his unselfish dedication to making a better future for manufacturing as it did to his skills in bridging cultural gaps and satisfying vested interests. His talent for finding the compromises that gave all parties what they needed was an invaluable asset and he often played invisible roles in multilateral projects such as the EDDL Cooperation Team and the FDI initiative.

Edgar led from the front but would listen at length to the views of PI colleagues, quietly and precisely summarising the outcome with a single bullet point on a Powerpoint slide! He recognized that success for PROFIBUS (and PROFINET) would only come through the global support of many companies and organizations, both large and small. To these he gave his all and the loyalty they returned fuelled the dynamism that will continue to drive PI forward.

Edgar was a great mentor and personal friend, helping to establish Regional PI Associations in many countries, including the PTO in North America. He supported us unwaveringly and until the end he wanted only to discuss the things we were doing to continue promoting PROFIBUS and PROFINET. His wishes were that the business he helped create should continue to run like he designed it. It is my intention to live up to that request.

I extend my sympathies to Angie, his widow, who often accompanied him when we met informally and who will remain for me a powerful link with Edgar's legacy.

Michael Bryant
Deputy Chairman, PI
Executive Director, PTO,
North America

FREITAG ELECTED

PNO’s Board of Directors

PNO Germany has announced the election of Jörg Freitag to the German Board of Directors. On Nov. 28, 2007, the PNO Advisory Board held a special meeting, as required after the passing of Edgar Küster. PNO’s Board of Directors (pictured right) also includes Prof. Klaus Bender (itm) and Klaus-Peter Lindner (Endress+Hauser). Until the next elections, to be held during Hanover Fair 2008, the Board of Directors will be chaired by Prof. Bender.

Jörg Freitag

Freitag studied electrical engineering at the Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen, Nürnberg and has since worked for more than 10 years for Siemens, acquiring extensive knowledge of automation technology and industrial communication. His close working relationship with Edgar Küster enabled him to gain a deep insight into PROFIBUS and PROFINET.

CHINA PA PRODUCTS CERTIFIED

In October the new PI Test Laboratory of Instrumentation Technology & Economy Institute, P. R. China (ITEI) accomplished the testing of two PROFIBUS PA products, an electro-pneumatic actuator and a pressure transmitter, which were developed by the Chinese company ChongQing SiChuan Instrument Co. LTD (SIC). The tests, which were qualified according to the PROFIBUS standard and the PROFIBUS PA profile, were successful and the two products have been allocated certificates No. Z01307 and Z01308 by PNO. This is a great start for both ITEI and SIC.

SIC is one of the biggest industrial instrument manufacturers in China. In 2005, SIC began to develop PROFIBUS PA products in conjunction with TMG. At the end of that year their first PA product - an electromagnetic flow meter - was certified. Z01308 by PNO. This is a great start for both ITEI and SIC. SIC is one of the biggest industrial instrument manufacturers in China. In 2005, SIC began to develop PROFIBUS PA products in conjunction with TMG. At the end of that year their first PA product - an electromagnetic flow meter - was certified.

CATALOG PROMOTES 177 PROFINET PRODUCTS ONLINE

The latest version of the PROFINET products flyer lists 177 products and services from over 30 vendors. Many of the products were shown on the special PROFINET wall at SPS/IPC/Drives (above). The flyer can be downloaded from here:

SPS/IPC/DRIVES 2007: AUTOMATION TECHNOLOGY LIVE!

More visitors than ever got an insight into the power and breadth of PROFIBUS and PROFINET solutions at the PI booth at this year's SPS/IPC/DRIVES in Nuremberg, November.

The highlight of the booth was a PROFINET presentation with over 100 products from more than 20 companies, which demonstrated the continuing growth of PI's important Industrial Ethernet technology.

Further demonstrations of PROFIdrive and TCI, as well as presentations on PROFIsafe, IO-Link and the ease of use of PROFIBUS, completed the range of industrial communication technologies on show.
Experts from vendor companies and various PI Competence Centers informed visitors about latest news and trends in automation technology.

Swiss Meeting Point

SPS/IPC/DRIVES attracts more and more visitors from Switzerland. So, to welcome them appropriately, a special ‘Swiss Meeting Point’ was installed on this year's PI booth. Here, visitors from Switzerland were able to join a guided tour around the PI booth, ending with a Swiss ‘Apérot’

AUTOMATION MAJORS SUPPORT PROFINET

At a Press Conference during the SPS/IPC/Drives Fair in November, guest speakers from three automation majors spoke about their support for PROFINET.

Thomas Schott, Vice President Factory Automation, Siemens A&D said: 'PROFINET with IRT has proven to be reliable in many motion control applications and it will be available for SIMATIC products shortly as well. Together with PNO and the automation partners involved, Siemens ensures the further development of PROFINET with IRT to the Ethernet system with best performance in all applications. At the same time PROFINET is always open for TCP/IP and IT communication, and also covers all requirements in safety engineering.[...]'

Roland Bent, Executive Vice President Marketing and Development, Phoenix Contact said: 'The real-time Ethernet protocol PROFINET is an integral component part of the IT powered automation concept of Phoenix Contact. It offers a complete PROFINET product portfolio which has already proved to be reliable in many applications. To mention only a few here: automation in the vehicle body construction for Audi models A4 and A5, a freezer storage building or supply ships for offshore drilling platforms. [...] The examination results [of a recent study supported by a German ministry] reveal that PROFINET is the fastest future-oriented real-time Ethernet protocol on account of the underlying transmission mode. Against this background, Phoenix Contact developed its own PROFINET IO device chip which significantly reduces the connection costs of simple field units and which will be offered by our subsidiary KW-Software at the beginning of 2009.'

Karl-Peter Simon, Vice President Sales Europe of Danfoss said: 'In the 1990s, Danfoss actively supported the introduction of PROFIBUS. Today, this technology has established itself in the market as the leading fieldbus standard. For this reason, it is of great interest and advantage for our customers that we continue this standard with PROFINET, ensuring that we follow-up with the increasing demands and needs of our customers. With regard to the possibility of integrating random fieldbuses by means of a proxy concept, PROFINET also ensures protection of the investments already made and the possibility of an easy and gradual change-over. PROFINET is scalable. [...] Because of this PROFINET is suitable for all kinds of industrial communication. It enables Danfoss, to set up the configurable frequency converter platform VLT AutomationDrive together with PROFINET for the optimal solution of future customer requirements.'

PI World

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SOUTH AFRICA

The PROFIBUS User Group in South Africa (PUGSA) is helping to tackle skills shortages in the country. PUGSA ran its first automation training sessions recently as part of the Automation Training Council’s (ATC) initiative. Recently, the first successful students were awarded their Certificates at a special banquet hosted by the Southern African German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The banquet was organized in honor of the visit of Mrs Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany. The first six students and four lecturers who were trained were presented with their certificates in the presence of the German Minister of Co-operation and Economic Development, Ms Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, the South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mandisa Mpahlwa, the President of the Southern African German Chamber, Mr Leo Roehrig and the President of BUSA, Mr Patrice Motsepe.

The skills shortage in South Africa has lead to the Southern African German Chamber of Commerce and Industry joining forces with PUGSA to run a Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) initiative in industrial automation. The ATC was formed to coordinate this initiative, which is a partnership of suppliers, installers and users who will support the government in its drive to deal with skills shortages and thus contribute towards economic growth.

Match funding to the value of R1.6M for every Rand contributed by South African companies has been obtained from the German Federal Ministry of Co-operation and Development through its agency SEQUA.The successful students are now designated ‘Internationally Certified PROFIBUS Installers’. Gift Kandukira, Sonja Nienaber and Zelda van Tonder were selected to attend the third and last course of this initiative, the Internationally Certified PROFIBUS Engineers course which will be held in the first week of December 2007.

The second group of 24 students attended the introductory course during October 2007 – from this group successful candidates will progress through the system of the Automation Training Council.
PROFIBUS is the most widely used industrial communications technology in the world. It enables industry to become globally competitive by allowing the seamless integration of industrial automation technologies in manufacturing plants. It therefore makes sense to train students in the field of PROFIBUS to become ‘job ready’, thereby making them immediately employable.

The Automation Training Council will train at least 96 students country-wide, under its scheme. It hopes to continue the initiative indefinitely and has been reaching out to the users of these skills to collaborate by making contributions in the form of sponsoring students, trainees and equipment.

The Automation Training Council welcomes contributions from all organisations especially those with German affiliations. This is a great opportunity to contribute to the BBBEE programme and to fulfil social responsibilities.

Dieter Dilchert +011 201 3200
or Ed Bauer +011 617 2000

JAPAN

Autumn is the exhibition season in Japan, too. We had PA exhibition, named Measurement & Control Show 2007 (Nov. 7-9), and FA exhibition, named System Control Fair 2007 (Nov. 13-16) in Tokyo, Japan. The visitors easily recognized that PROFIBUS is the only fieldbus system which covers both FA and PA area in the factory, when they saw our multi vendor demo system (45 products from 25 vendors), which included PROFINET products from 5 vendors.

The number of PROFIBUS applications has increased in Japan. People prefer the bus speed, the simple engineering of PROFIBUS and enjoy the cost reductions in using it. JPO holds over 20 PROFIBUS/PROFINET seminars each year to expand the market. JPO has also completed the translation of the PROFIBUS PA book into Japanese, with the support of PNO. In Japan, process automation is a big market and PROFIBUS PA has big potential. A PROFIBUS PA Competence Center has been established and JPO participated in the ‘Measurement & Control Show’ in Tokyo in November. JPO also plans to have a PI Test Lab for PA device soon. JPO believes the ‘PROFIBUS PA’ book will accelerate PROFIBUS PA promotion in Japan.

NETHERLANDS 1

In October, the PROFIBUS Nederland General Meeting of Members was held in the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament building in The Hague. It was the perfect opportunity to take a guided tour of the historical premises. Part of the visit included attending a compelling lecture by the CDA Member of Parliament Roland Kortenhorst who contended that if the industry wishes to find a willing ear for its interests, then it must communicate more effectively with politicians as well as the public at large. More often than not, the industry’s messages focus too much on technical details, when society is more interested in the social benefit and the consequences for health, environment and welfare. The participants in this year’s General Meeting of Members were highly enthusiastic about the day’s events. The contribution from the Chinese PROFIBUS organisation on developments in China was likewise very much appreciated.

NETHERLANDS 2

This year, the National PROFIBUS & PROFINET Day in Ede once again attracted many visitors. The 2007 edition not only featured a trade fair with a good number of exhibitors (over 20), but also generated plenty of interest in the 20 presentations. In addition to 14 Dutch speakers, there were four speakers from Germany: Guido Nelles, Chairman IO-Link working group, Manfred Gaul from SEW, Manfred Grossmann from ITM and Klaus Peter Willems from TMG. The contributions about the latest developments at PROFIBUS, PROFINET and IO-Link really stood out. IO-Link is still quite new, and consequently there are many questions surrounding this technology: what is it exactly and how advanced is it? Clearly, IO-Link is a crucial development that has a wide base of support and is destined to have a large impact, in the process industry and factory automation alike. TCI is likewise a new development. Using TCI, users can start up configuration tools for slaves for third parties, which is very useful when configuring projects. Wireless applications are booming, but the combination with Safety is still new. This technology was also presented during the event. The presentations included sharing a considerable amount of real-life experiences involving the various applications that have been realised throughout the country over the past year.

BRAZIL

In October 2007 the first PROFIBUS Product Developer Training took place in SAO CARLOS (Brazil) at the new PROFIBUS Competence Center (PCC) in EESC - University of São Paulo. The event was organized by the Laboratory of Industrial Automation coordinated by Prof. Dennis Brandão, in cooperation with PROFIBUS Association Brazil (RPA), managed by Mr. Cesar Cassiolato, and run by Peter Fredehorst and Lothar Schroettel from Profichip, Germany. The course started with an introduction to the Companies supporting the presentations by Mr. Ivaldo Martins from Orkan Informática Automação and Andrej Suares. 27 engineers learned how to develop a PROFIBUS product. Main topics included software- and hardware- structures, the differences between DP-V0, DP-V1 and DP-V2, PROFIBUS ASIC´s from Profichip, RS485 physical Interface Design and PROFIBUS Tools.

CHINA

A one-day PROFIBUS Product Development Seminar was held jointly by CPO Technology Working Group (WG2) and Profichip in November 2007, in Beijing. About 30 delegates attended. Mr. Huimin Sun from CPPTL, Mr. Lothar Schroettel and Mr. Peter Fredehorst from Profichip addressed various aspects of developing PROFIBUS products. Delegates asked many questions. Experts visited CPCC and CPPTL after the seminar. Four representatives from CAMETA, the organization which runs CPO in China, attended 2 weeks of training in marketing and technical skills at the PROCENTEC offices in the Netherlands, for the promotion and sales of PROFIBUS technology and related products. PROFIBUS is growing rapidly in China and it is absolutely necessary that end-users get the best advice. The CAMETA representatives also participated in the first training sessions with the ProfiTrace2 analyzer. CAMETA will standardize on this tool in China for troubleshooting and maintenance.

UK

The UK PROFIBUS Group has put out another call for papers for its User Conference in June 2008. The conference is designed for engineers, managers and indeed anyone concerned with the real issues of implementing fieldbus and/or Industrial Ethernet technologies. The programme will contain a mixture of presentations, demonstrations and hands-on practical sessions suitable for first-time users and those with extensive working experience. In addition, it will cover latest developments. Speakers should be willing to make a 30/40 minutes presentation on applications and other user aspects of PROFIBUS and PROFINET. More at www.profi-bus.co.uk

ITALY

PNI successfully employed a new presentation concept at the SAVE automation and instrumentation exhibition in Verona in October. The PNI booth was split into two parts: one for exhibitors and one for seminars. During pre-registration, visitors received a seminars list so that they could select the seminars in which they were interested. The seminars included short presentations about technology and applications. Each day, 11 PNI partner associates presented half-hour case study reports and visitors could listen to lectures about PROFIBUS and PROFINET. In total, there were 39 seminars and more than 900 registered participants! In addition, PNI partner associates had the chance to use the booth as a contact base. Graphic panels on the booth provided additional information about the seminars and the speakers.

NORTH AMERICA

The PTO has successfully completed its 2007 series of seminars, road shows and workshops aimed at taking the good news about PROFIBUS and PROFINET out to end users, SIs and customers across North America. PTO staff are now catching their breath after also attending SPS/IPC/Drives in Germany in November. In all, 40 events were held across the USA and Canada, with something happening every week it seemed. Carl Henning blogged his way through the year, often reporting on his travels and those of his colleagues, but a significant amount of blog airtime seems to have been taken up countering the FUD of the competition. FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) is a well-rehearsed technique for deflecting customers away from PROFINET in particular and it’s widely used in some circles, especially by those who have technical weaknesses in their own Industrial Ethernet protocols! Who can that be? Read Ccarl’s Blog here to find out. Now PTO is working on the 2008 program of events, with even more planned than in 2007. In fact, in one form or another, PROFIBUS and PROFINET will be coming to a venue near you at least once during the year. The PTO and PROFI Interface Center will be holding joint (and FREE!) one-day training classes throughout North America for the sixth consecutive year. There are 24 cities in the schedule but watch for more to be added. There are three different curricula centering on PROFIBUS, PROFIBUS in the process industry, and PROFINET. Full details see link below.

There are also more PROFItech training sessions being held. Attendees who successfully complete the written and practical tests are rewarded with the title Certified Network Engineer check those out here:

Applications

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Brazil/ Biofuels

Brazil has made great progress in consolidating the technical production of biofuel from sugar cane. By 2012, the ethanol market is expected to be worth US$15 billion.

Digital networks are used extensively and today over 50% of new sugar and ethanol plants use PROFIBUS.

New projects include Tropical Bioenergia S.A., which has approximately 1000 PROFIBUS nodes connected to Smar DFI302 DF73 controllers with System302-7, a hybrid control system with decentralized architecture, which enabled this facility to quickly double production.

In September 2007, Santa Elisa Distillery and Smar signed a contract for the complete automation of 4 new plants This distillery is owned by the Santelisa-Vale Group, one of the major sugar-ethanol producers. The deal involves the supply of System302-7 plus all instrumentation using PROFIBUS. It also includes the infrastructure of a Center of Integrated Operations (COI) similar to the successful Santa Elisa COI.

Included are more than 3200 Smar PROFIBUS PA field instruments and 4 supervision and control systems that include 21 DF73 DP-V1 CPUs per unit. AS-I technology is used for on-off valves and sensors. Two of the units – Ituiutaba and Itumbiara - are scheduled to start grinding in July 2008 and the other two - Campina Verde and Platina - in May 2009.

Another facility – Usina Tropical, in Edéia, Goiás state – is part of the deal. It was contracted in June 2007, with project and conditions similar to the other four plants.

All projects are integrated by Studio, a System302-7 component that makes it possible to easily manage the software required.

One fourth of the primary energy used in Brazil comes from biomasses, a unique situation in the world. The position today, and the projected situation for 2012/13 are shown below.

SMAR
César Cassiolato, Smar Product Manager
Leandro Torres, Smar Systems Manager
Marcus Vinicius Ribeiro – Smar Sugar & Ethanol Application Manager

UK/ Diesel Engines

In order to reduce machine downtime at their Darlington engine plant, Cummins contracted Cleveland Systems Engineering to install PROFIBUS diagnostics software and hardware in two of their Siemens S7-300 systems. The upgrade allowed immediate indication of the location and type of fault present within the PROFIBUS network, greatly reducing production downtime. The upgrade was carried out concurrent to a full PROFIBUS rewire using highly oil resistant cable, selected because of the harsh environmental conditions on the line. The hardware on these networks comprises Siemens ET200X remote I/O, Moby RFID devices, direct on-line motor starters and frequency converters. A Siemens PROFIBUS diagnostic repeater was added to each PLC.

The engine test facility is used to run every engine manufactured under load conditions in one of three automated test cells. The section as a whole incorporates seven Siemens 300 series PLC’s, comeach with a HMI and PROFIBUS networks. The diagnostics upgrades were installed in the two PLC’s controlling the conveyor system which feeds the three test cells with engines. The diagnostic repeater in this application is used for its bus determining and line diagnostic capabilities. The repeater can detect, locate and diagnose bus faults accurate to 1 metre as well as being able to detect the network topology. All of this information is available for extraction into the user program.

The status of each node and the repeater line diagnostics are accessed from the user program by means of the Siemens function block, FB125. This, along with an interface on the HMI, brings real time fault diagnosis to the user.

The screens on the HMI were custom designed to include cable and node layout mimics, as well as node slot information to help pinpoint faulty modules or cables in event of a breakdown.

The four screens when used together offer all the information required to diagnose the disturbance within minutes. System design, project management, electrical installation, software design and commissioning were all undertaken by Cleveland Systems Engineering.

Cleveland Systems Engineering:
+44 (0)1325 485098

NEW PRODUCTS

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BLOCK I/O FOR LINE TOPOLOGIES

Turck has introduced IP67 block I/Os for PROFINET. The FXEN supports PROFINET Real-Time (RT) communication and has an integrated switch for building linear topologies. The XSG16 version features 16 digital channels, which can be configured either as input, output or inverted input according to the requirements. FXEN supports FDT/DTM configuration and parameterization. The Ethernet connection uses 4-pole D-coded M12 round connectors. 5-pole M12 connectors are used for I/O.

Turck:

INTERFACE FOR ENCODERS

TR Electronic claims to be one of the first companies successfully implementing a PROFINET IO interface into their rotary and linear encoders. The encoders are certified to support Real time Class I (RT) and Real time Class III (IRT) communications. The measurement system has two Ethernet ports and an integrated switch and it is easy to parameterize via PROFINET IO. The parameters are programmed via a configuration tool, such as STEP7.

TR ELECTRONICS:

SAFETY ON BOARD

Rexroth now offers complete Safety on Board solutions for its drives products based on the integration of PROFIsafe either via PROFIBUS or PROFINET. These are integrated system solutions with safe logic processing and drive-integrated safety technology meeting the requirements of modern safety concepts. The latest new function is the safe braking and stopping system for safe working under suspended loads. House controllers can be upgraded, as options, to safety controllers and all can be flexibly programmed using the IndraWorks engineering tool.

REXROTH:
+49 9352 40-4552

MULTI-FUNCTION CONTROLLER

The S-MAX 412/415/417 CE PN from Phoenix Contact is a high-end system for open and closed-loop control, operation, monitoring and communication. It has a PROFINET IO controller in addition to the INTERBUS master. The PLC and fieldbus functions are programmed seamlessly using PC Worx automation software, while the visualization system can be created with the Visu+ and ProVisIT software tools. The controller is available with a 12”, 15” and 17” color TFT display with touch screen.

PHOENIX CONTACT:

FIBER OPTIC CONVERTERS

Phoenix Contact has extended its PSI-MOS fiber optic product line with converters in 1300 nm technology. The proven features of PSI-MOS can now be used for network distances of up to 24 km with multimode glass fibers and up to 33 km with singlemode glass fibers. The integrated monitoring of received power evaluates the quality of the connection at start-up and a pre-warning function alerts the user before network loss.

PHOENIX CONTACT:

COMMISSIONING AND DIAGNOSTICS

The DREHMO PROFIBUS Testmaster is an all-purpose test and diagnostics tool for commissioning DP Slaves. It is especially suited to the commissioning of DREHMO actuators equipped with PROFIBUS DP interface. However, Testmaster supports easy cyclic communication setup with any PROFIBUS slave using PROFIBUS tools from other manufacturers and offers the opportunity to verify settings prior to plant start without the use of complex and expensive DCS Systems.

DREHMO:
+49 2762 / 612 190

NETWORK TESTER

Softing has a new version of its PB-T3 PROFIBUS Electrical Tester. It includes support for German, English, French, Italian and Chinese (simplified) languages and is a powerful, yet easy-to-use tool used to determine the signal quality of each connected device. The Tester analyzes the physical layer and visually displays the signal quality for each device and the location of faults, helping users to quickly find and correct errors. The included PROFIBUS master simulator enables PB-T3 to verify the integrity of PROFIBUS networks without having the actual controller on-line.

SOFTING:
+49 (0)89 45656 0

PROCESS GATEWAY

Real Time Automation has designed a custom gateway box to gather data from up to 31 AquaSensors DataSticks using Modbus RTU communications and then feeding it to a PROFIBUS Master. A set of three DataSticks with Oxygen, Turbidity and pH sensors is organized on PROFIBUS as four slots. The first slot is for the gateway itself and the next three slots contain the Oxygen Sensor value and its temperature in the second slot, the Turbidity value and its temperature in the third slot, and the pH value and its temperature in the fourth slot.

REAL TIME AUTOMATION:
+1 414 453 5100

INTERFACE CARD

Woodhead has announced a PCI two channel interface card for PROFIBUS, which allows a computer to connect to two independent PROFIBUS networks. The interface is a universal PCI bus format, supports both 3.3V & 5V and is PCI-X compatible. Features include device configuration and diagnostics through FDT using commDTM, diagnostic LEDs for system status, watchdog timeout and communication status. Applications include connecting computers running software applications such as Operator Interfaces, Human-Machine Interfaces, PC Control and network diagnostics to PROFIBUS. The cards are also available for other computer bus formats.

WOODHEAD INDUSTRIES:

4 PORT PROXY EXTENDS PROFIBUS

The new FNL Proxy PN/PB from Comsoft operates as a PROFIBUS master and integrates PROFIBUS segments in PROFINET IO. This allows PROFIBUS networks to be expanded using PROFINET IO without effort. It has 4 PROFINET IO ports, plus a serial port for commissioning and diagnostics. The device has the ERTEC 400 chip and includes a full suite of PROFIBUS diagnostic functions plus additional feature such as configurable behavior of the PROFIBUS master in the event of a breakdown of the PROFINET network, with detailed error codes. SNMP diagnostics and TFTP based firmware updates are also included.

COMSOFT:

IDENT PROFINET

The IDENTcontrol system from Pepperl+Fuchs now supports PROFINET. Existing IDENT systems can be retrofitted by simply replacing the evaluation unit. Advantages include higher data transfer rates and web server functionality.

PEPPERL+FUCHS:

MORE PRODUCTS ON-LINE

Our On-line Product Guide now has over 2,500 product entries.

Search on keywords or text. E.g. you can specify the 'Product Type', the 'Technology' (PROFIBUS or PROFINET), the relevant definition format (GSD, EDD or DTM), and whether a Profile (e.g. PROFIdrive, PROFIsafe, etc.) is applicable. You can even specify certified products only.

Browse here:

ABOUT PROFINEWS

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PROFINEWS: THE OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER OF PI

PROFINEWS, the official newsletter of PI, is published 6 times each year. The international version is sent out to 16,000+ subscribers all over the world, and supplemented by local versions in Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil, China, UK, USA and other countries. An online html-version and a downloadable pdf-version are available on www.profinews.com

Or have a look at PI's website www.profibus.com and www.profinet.com

PUBLISH YOUR STORIES IN PROFINEWS

Stories are always welcome.

If you’re a member of a Regional PI Association you can have your PROFIBUS and PROFINET stories published free here in PROFINEWS, and read by a global audience. We need product news, case studies and general news, all related to PROFIBUS or PROFINET. RPAs can have their successes reported here also.

For publication of a product story, we only need

1. an English text (approx. 100 words)
2. contact details for further information (e-mail, telephone, website, or similar)
3. a picture of the product, if possible (gif or jpg, width: 200 pixel)

Stories may be sent to the editor (geoff@ggh.co.uk) or to Petra Mayer (profinews@profibus.com) at any time and are published in the next possible PROFINEWS issue.

For the next issue, PROFINEWS 60, we need your stories by January 25th, 2008.

SUBSCRIBE / UNSUBSCRIBE TO PROFINEWS

PI'S PROFINEWS newsletter informs you regularly about the latest news on PROFIBUS or PROFINET. It is free of charge and published 6 times per year. To get on the PROFINEWS mailing list, all you need to do is subscribe to our PROFINEWS Newsletter:
- use the subscribe form on www.profinews.com
- or send an e-mail with 'subscribe' and your country to profinews@profibus.com

PROFINEWS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

ON-LINE FORUMS

PI’s website at www.profibus.com offers two public forums (one for PROFIBUS topics and the other for PROFINET topics). The forums are a great way to share knowledge and expertise. Both are moderated and have been up and running for some time so there's an excellent knowledge base available. Taking an active part is a good way of increasing your knowledge. Both are free – just browse here: