The Profi Interface Center (PIC) has completed a Profinet ‘Wall of Fame’ in its test lab in Johnson City, Tenn. that features Profinet industrial networking devices they have tested and certified. The wall currently has 54 nodes, including remote I/O, drives, vision systems, HMIs, wireless devices, embedded diagnostics, infrastructure and security devices.
The PIC is part of the global network of competence centers, training centers and test labs established by PI, the umbrella organization responsible for Profibus and Profinet internationally. Certification of Profinet devices is required through PI to ensure interoperability among products, and the labs are able to support device vendors in case of conformance questions.
PIC manager Torsten Paulsen said, “We created this installation to feature all of the devices we have certified over the years and put them to use as a ‘real world’ test bed and reference network.” Device testing and certification ensures “a clean user experience with most major Profinet controllers,” he said.
Kyle McMillan, one of the PIC’s Profinet experts, added, “We’re running Profinet over copper, fiber and wireless, using MRP for redundancy, IRT for some of our I/O, PROFIsafe for our safety system, and really leveraging every aspect of Profinet we can fit together. We want to show that these features don’t just work on paper, but that they can be implemented across different vendors, platforms, and network media.”
More than 500 Profinet-enabled products have been tested and certified worldwide. PIC has tested devices since 1996. Paulsen said that, for about four years, annual Profinet certification tests have outnumbered Profibus.” “The broad variety of device types and vendors really underlines the openness and multi-vendor support of Profinet, and gives the end user many implementation choices and investment protection,” said Paulsen.
