Sep 27
2017 New PROFIBUS / PROFINET Products
Since the beginning of 2017 there have been 80+ new products announced with either a PROFIBUS, PROFINET, or IO-Link interface at profinews.com. That’s the result of a quick count I did by counting all of New Product announcements this year: http://profinews.com/category/product-news/ 80+ New Products This Year at PROFINEWS How many others? And that’s just the…
May 10
Hannover Messe Report: Ease of Use
If there was one big blinking neon light not to be missed from Hannover Messe this year it was: OPC UA. Like Karsten mentioned in PROFINEWS, it was everywhere -that and TSN. But what is the subtext to be gleaned behind these technologies? -EASE OF USE- This is the holy-grail for all manufacturers, and is…
Dec 8
SPS/IPC/Drives 2015 – Impressions
This year’s SPS/IPC/Drives, in my humble opinion, was one of the most exciting ever. With so many important announcements going on, it seemed like a non-stop barrage of news. First was the announcement about cooperation with CC-Link IE. This cooperation is singularly about the end-users, and making their lives easier. By specifying a “coupler” to connect machines,…
Dec 3
SPS/IPC/Drives 2015: the members
There were quite a few PI North America members that had tables at the booth this year at SPS 2015. Here’s a list that sponsored tables: Molex Advantech Innovasic Phoenix Contact Siemens Belden Harting Procentec Murrelektronik Hilscher Mitsubishi ProSoft Comtrol This is by no means an exhaustive list of those that supported the booth, only…
Dec 2
SPS/IPC/Drives 2015 – the PI booth
This year’s theme: PROFINET – The Backbone of Industrie 4.0 See below for a collection of photos from the PI booth at SPS/IPC/Drives 2015 in Nuremberg, Germany. After moving to Hall 2 last year, again the booth was located in Hall 2. The difference was, foot traffic was much greater than in 2014. Maybe people finally…
Aug 18
IoT vs. IIoT
IIot is not IoT. That much is clear. What isn’t clear is where the similarities and differences arise. Because while one is a Revolution, the other is an Evolution. The rest follows from there. The technologies behind the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) have existed for many years. Features like remote access, machine-to-machine, cloud aren’t…
Apr 14
Industrial Wireless: What to Consider
Lots has been written in this space about using industrial wireless with PROFINET. This is mostly the ‘what’; this post is to address the ‘how’. “How do I implement industrial wireless in a PROFINET network?” Just to recap, while wireless is not just one thing, this will focus exclusively on the most common type of wireless:…
Dec 8
PI Press Conference – SPS 2014
Wednesday morning Nov 26 at the SPS/IPC/Drives fair, PI held its annual press conference to announce the latest updates with respect to the technologies. Here are the highlights: PROFINET perfect for machine building PI (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International) is pleased with the increasing use of PROFINET in machine building, where functions for safety, diagnostics, etc.,…
Nov 4
The Virtualization of Control
I always love it when a speaker begins their presentation with: “Are you all ready to geek out for a little while?” So began Rich Carpenter, Chief Technology Strategist for GE Intelligent Platforms, in his breakout session at the inaugural GE-IP User Summit. And while there were many interesting talks at the event, perhaps because…
Oct 7
General Assembly Meeting Wrap-Up 2
Industrial Internet of Things (cont’d) I’ve been asked to give a little background on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) covered in the first GAM 14 post. In general, the Internet of Things refers to the collection of smart objects connected to the Internet. It can be broken down into three realms: Consumer Commercial Industrial…