The 15th annual meeting of the Profibus Trade Organization ( PTO, www.us.profibus.com ), the North American marketing arm of Profibus International, was held Aug. 6 as a virtual meeting this year, due to widespread restrictions in company travel budgets.

PTO Executive Director Mike Bryant reported that Profibus nodes were up a significant 5 million in 2008 to bring total nodes to 28.3 million—well on the way to the goal of 50 million by 2012. Profinet, the Ethernet implementation, also saw significant growth in 2008, with node count at 1.14 million. PTO is projecting 1.6 million in 2009 on the way to 3 million nodes in 2010.

The emphasis at this year’s annual meeting was on what PTO is doing to promote the technology, which lays the foundation for member companies to sell Profibus/Profinet products. PTO executives and representatives are constantly on the road doing one-day seminars, technical training and other speaking events, Bryant said. In addition, PTO sponsors newsletters for each technology. A popular addition has been “Webinars” or topical discussions accessible live over the Internet and archived for later viewing on the PTO Web site.

Profibus Trade Organization
www.us.profibus.com