Electricity + Control November 2015

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PROFIBUS – the future of automation
Based on serial bus technology, PROFIBUS revolutionised au-
tomation in the 1980s, creating a foundation for the distributed
environments common today. PROFIBUS is currently the world’s
most widely used industrial communications system, supported by
more than 1400 equipment vendors around the world, and has 50
million nodes installed worldwide according to Karsten Schneider,
Chairman of PI International.
PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI) comprise the larg-
est automation community in the world, boasting 27 Regional PI
Associations – PI South Africa being one of them.The organisation
has 56 competence centres, including one in SouthAfrica, 27 train-
ing centres, and 10 test labs. Speaking at a breakfast held recently
at The Pivot Conference Centre, Monte Casino in Johannesburg,
Schneider said that although there are still more PROFIBUS than
PROFINET installed systems, PROFINET is the future. PROFINET is
not only faster, it can also simply do more than PROFIBUS and it is
easy to change from a PROFIBUS to a PROFINET system, he said.
PROFINET has 10 million nodes installed worldwide. Although at
present there are some areas where it is not practical to change to
PROFINET – PROFINET is the future; as compared to PROFIBUS, it
performs better and has better diagnostics.
PROFINET merges the industrial experience of PROFIBUS with
the openness and flexibility of Ethernet.The vast field experience
gained from PROFIBUS is embedded deeply in the PROFINET solu-
tions available today, and provides a single standardised approach.
In addition, a fieldbus-enabled plant delivers more and better
data to supervisory systems, supporting improved management
strategies across the enterprise. PROFINET is essentially a further
development of the PROFIBUS DP. However, it offers a number of
advantages, including high-speed operation as a result of high-
speed process data exchange, simple network structure, and more
cost-effective technology. Some exciting news, which was met with
interest by those attending the breakfast, is that a new PROFIBUS
Certified System Design Course will be available in South Africa
through the PROFIBUS Competence Centre next year. More details
on the dates of the course are still to be announced.
Enquiries: Contact details: Dave Bean. Email
Dave Bean
(PROFIBUS
Competence
Centre, South
Africa); Karsten
Schneider
(Chairman, PI
International).
Heavy-duty line fibre optics
RET Automation Controls introduces new heavy-duty Van-
tage Line fibre optics to complement its industry-leading
fibre amplifier product family. Featuring a flexible 304
stainless steel tube, the polyethylene jacketed plastic fibre
is protected from crushing or abrasion in harsh industrial
environments. To accommodate diverse applications, the
heavy-duty Vantage line plastic fibres are available in eight
different models, four with opposed sensing mode and four
with diffuse sensing mode, in one and two meter options.
All heavy-duty fibres are compatible with Banner’s existing
plastic fibre amplifiers, including the DF-G family. “Our new
heavy-duty vantage line of plastic fibres offer enhanced
durability and stable performance at a cost effective price,”
said Dennis Smith, Senior Technical Marketing Manager,
Banner Engineering. “With these heavy-duty models, our
customers can use plastic fibres in rugged environments
where they previously used more expensive glass fibres.”
Enquiries: BrandonTopham.
Email
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