At the show PROFINET was ubiquitous, but I think the biggest news of the fair was PROFIenergy.
First, PROFINET. Here is a ten-second pan of the PROFINET wall in the PI booth. And this is the PROFINET display at the Phoenix Contact stand:
Now to PROFIenergy: PROFIenergy is an application profile for PROFINET that makes it easy for manufacturers to save energy. An application profile does not impact the underlying communication protocol (PROFINET), it specifies an arrangement of data and commands that is understood by the provider and the consumer of the information.
Here is the PROFIenergy wall in the PI booth:
In the Siemens booth they made much ado about energy management, including a display where PROFIenergy was used:
(click for a close-up of the devices)
Norbert Brousek of Siemens, who is active in the PROFIenergy community, provides a short video introduction to PROFIenergy. Siemens has also produced a professional video about PROFIenergy.
For more information on PROFIenergy visit the white paper section of our website. Control Engineering Europe just published an article on PROFIenergy: “New source of energy savings: shut it off with Profienergy.” It’s a bit commercial, but provides some interesting background on the origins of PROFIenergy; for example, “How to save energy during afternoon beer breaks.” And watch for the December issue of PROFINET News for a detailed article on PROFIenergy.
You can talk about being green or reducing your carbon footprint, but to me it’s all about saving money, as the piggy banks in the PI booth say:
–Carl Henning