Pressemitteilungen & News

Connecting the technologies of PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) – this will be exceedingly demonstrated at this year's PI Booth at the Hanover Fair on April 13-17, 2015. The PI booth, located in Hall 9 Booth D68, is situated directly on the "Automation & IT Tour", which leads by way of a red carpet through the halls of the trade fair. The highlight of the PI booth is a PROFINET-based demo system that folds paper airplanes. From a simple sheet of paper, which is provided with personalized printing, a flying object with special precise folding and turning mechanisms is produced. All the steps involved – paper feed, printing, folding, launching – as well as the monitoring and initiation of the launch process take place with the help of PI technologies that are integrated in components of a wide range of manufacturers.

"We want to communicate at a glance not only that sensors and actuators work together reliably with PROFINET but also that IO-Link and the individual profiles such as PROFIdrive, PROFIsafe, and PROFIenergy can be easily integrated. The entire launch area is monitored with the help of PROFIsafe for example," Matthias Himmler, PROFIenergy Marketing at PI, said when explaining the model that was created in collaboration with TU Darmstadt. The system can also be put in energy saving mode at any time with the help of PROFIenergy. With live tracking, visitors can see how much energy is saved during pauses. 

While the live demonstration could not use components from all 80 co-exhibitors, the model nevertheless demonstrates impressively how the different technologies work together and products of various manufacturers communicate with one another. Visitors can learn about four technology areas from the products of the other co-exhibitors. In these exhibition areas, visitors receive a comprehensive overview of the diversity and information of the technologies as well as an overview of newly certified devices: 

• Process automation (live demo of PROFIBUS and PROFINET in process automation)
• Production automation (diversity of devices with PROFINET interface and other technologies)
• Information on PROFIenergy, PROFIdrive, and PROFIsafe
• IO-Link (diversity of devices, services, and manufacturers)
  
  

In particular, the interaction of various technologies and manufacturers in the process automation area, which will also be observable in a live PA demo, may be of great interest. All aspects of FDI and the use of PROFINET in process automation will be discussed, in particular.