By Bill Lydon, Editor
PI North America's General Assembly Meeting (GAM) took place in Scottsdale, AZ on September 24-26, 2014. The meeting was attended by more than 60 delegates. Presentations included organizational updates, technical updates, and application presentations. Four North American members (Phoenix Contact, Endress+Hauser, GE Intelligent Platforms and Siemens) explained the importance of PROFIBUS and PROFINET in their decision to be represented on the Board of PI North America. PROFI Interface Center (PIC) staff described latest developments in the testing of PROFINET devices, in particular the new Net Load test, which has been made mandatory.
PI Chairman Karsten Schneider said this requirement was related to a rapidly increasing emphasis on network security that will roll out over coming months.
Growth
The family of PI protocols continues to grow with 2012 node counts reported as:
- Profibus - 46.60 million
- PROFINET - 5.80 million
- Profibus PA - 7.50 million
- ProfiSafe - 2.15 million
The size and number of working groups continues to be impressive with these developments:
- 3/2013 - PROFINET Clock Synchronization
- 1/2013 - PROFINET IO V2.3ed2
- 11/2013- PROFINET Security Guideline
- 11/2013 - HART Integration in PROFINET
Developments for 2014 include integrated diagnostics and condition monitoring, PA Profile for PROFINET, and China standardization GB/T. (Editor’s note: GB standards are the Chinese national standards issued by the Standardization Administration of China (SAC) for PROFIdrive, PROFINET, and PROFIsafe.)
FDI Cooperation
The PI organization continues to work on the FDI Cooperation to have a unified device integration standard. The purpose of the standard is to simplify system engineering, commissioning and maintenance using a single Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for PI protocols, HART, and Foundation Fieldbus. The PROFIBUS PA Working group has 25 members from 18 Companies working on the PROFIBUS PA Profile 3.02, which focuses on easy device handling, including easy diagnostics, easy device replacement, and easy life cycle management.
Condensed Status & Diagnostic Messages, Automatic Identifier, Faster Parameter Transmission, and Device Identification in non-powered state will be mandatory in PA Profile version 3.02. The goal is a unified standard in 2014.
Vendor Commitment
Endress+Hauser, Phoenix Contact, GE Intelligent Platforms, and Siemens executives presented why they support PI standards and are members of the board. PI North America's Board of Directors advises the organization and helps shape long-term strategy. Members include:
- Jason Knuteson - Vice President USA Projects & Solutions Group of Endress+Hauser
- Bernie Anger - General Manager, Control and Communication Systems of GE Intelligent Platforms
- Mike Rothwell - Director of Control & Industry Solutions Americas Business Unit of Phoenix Contact
- Raj Batra - President of Industry Automation (IA) Division of Siemens Industry, Inc.
Raj Batra discussed how PROFINET supports customer goals to improve efficiency, performance, and flexibility. He believes the technology supports the vision of optimization of the entire production process with innovative software systems from initial idea through production and delivery logistics. Siemens is a long-term PI member and a technology evangelist for PROFINET.
Jason Knuteson of Endress+Hauser expressed that PI protocols deliver high value to customers, including reliable diagnostics and seamless integration for heterogeneous plants. Endress+Hauser has a long history starting in 1991, when they introduced the first device incorporating PROFIBUS-FMS. In 1997, they introduced the first device with PROFIBUS PA. And in 2010, they were the first to implement the PA Profile 3.02.
The company is strongly involved in activities, including being a member of the PI board, leader of the Marketing Process Automation Working Group, participation in various other Working Groups, Chairman of the Regional PI Associations (RPA) South Africa, Member of the board of numerous RPAs, owner of a PI Competence Centre (PICC), and owner of a PI Training Center (PITC).
Bernie Anger of GE Intelligent Platforms expressed the value as high performance, ease of configuration, robustness, and strong ecosystem of suppliers. A major factor is to support high performance solutions for a connected world leading to the Internet of Things. Advanced analytics requires a high performance and solid communications network provided by PROFINET. The fact that standard, unmodified TCP/IP Ethernet is deeply integrated into PROFINET makes it easy to use other IP devices in the same network.
Mike Rothwell of Phoenix Contact Americas presented a number of technical advantages - most prominent that TCP/IP communication is deeply integrated in PROFINET, which makes it easy to use IT Devices or PCs parallel with cyclic IO communication. Each PROFINET device is accessible via standard unmodified TCP/IP communications, supporting functions including Web-Servers and FTP. PROFINET devices are accessible from network management systems or remote control/visualization stations without additional cost. The PROFINET proxy-concept makes integration of all relevant fieldbus systems easy, including PROFIBUS, INTERBUS, AS-I, CANopen, DeviceNet, and Foundation Fieldbus. That ability to have PROFISAFE and standard devices in the same network is also another big benefit cited.
All this, accomplished with a single engineering and communication protocol, reduces costs and supports more flexibility in safety applications. Phoenix Contact Americas has a certified PI Training Center (PITC) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Customer Applications
Trygve Harvei of ABB discussed the application of PROFINET on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The application combines multiple control and information disciplines in a converged common networking infrastructure on North Sea platforms. The application was very large and integrated IEC 61850 into the systems with PROFINET and IEC 61850 devices interacting by interfacing communications between the two networks. ISA100.11a workless devices were also integrated into PROFINET using gateways.
Harvei made an interesting observation when he said, “Technology has blurred the line between the physical machine and the electronic machine driving our infrastructure.” The projects he described had the various types of networks integrated that are transparent to system operations people.
Herman Humphrey of Jim Beam discussed adding instrumentation to an existing Rockwell-based system using Profibus devices. He used a ProSoft PDMV1 Profibus master module that installs in a ControlLogix rack and also the HIPROM EN2PAR that provides a gateway between Profibus-PA and EtherNet/IP. This was a cost-effective way to add 77 flow meters and 136 Profibus level transmitters, which ultimately improved plant operations.
Thoughts & Observations
The PI organization and members are always technical- and user-focused. They are committed to advancing networking technology to improve the industry. The organization has an impressive number of working groups .
The user presentations further brought into focus that existing plants have many types of networks that can benefit from efficient gateways and proxies to further enhance automation with new controls and instruments.
The value of PROFINET devices coexisting with standard, unmodified TCP/IP communications came through clearly in the vendor and customer presentations.