PI North America was founded as PROFIBUS Trade Organization in 1994 and was generally known as just PTO. Although an autonomous non-profit trade organization, PTO renamed itself to PI North America to more closely identify with the international umbrella organization for the Regional PI Associations.
PI North America is dedicated to showing industry the beneficial results of using fieldbuses in general and PROFIBUS and PROFINET in particular while assisting device manufacturers throughout North America in the development and marketing of PROFIBUS and PROFINET products.
Over 1400 companies organized in 25 Regional PROFIBUS Associations develop and supply fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet solutions for cost efficient and highly reliable automation.
PI North America is part of the global PI community that includes 25 Regional PI Associations (RPAs).
The H-850KMLD hexapod system handles loads to 500 kg (1000+ pounds) and provides 1 µm minimum incremental motion over a 100 mm travel range in XY and 0.5 µm in the Z direction...
Sometimes one minute is not enough to find out about PROFINET. For those occasions, try some more detailed videos from the PROFI Interface Center, featuring Hunter Harrington....
Gotta minute? You can learn a lot about PROFINET in a minute. Inspired by MinutePhysics, PI North America is pleased to present, drum roll please, MinutePROFINET
PROFINET supports virtually all automation functions in manufacturing, including discrete control, process control, motion control, peer-to-peer integration, vertical IT integration...
As big as the move from fieldbuses to Ethernet-based networks was, the move toward Time-Sensitive Networking will be equally significant because it places all protocols on the...
Time-Sensitive Networking's star has been on the rise with its promise to bring determinism via standard Ethernet to the plant floor. In contrast to the positive news surrounding...
Concepts like the Industrial Internet of Things, Big Data and IT/OT convergence are making headlines and the race is on for companies to leverage each to gain a sustainable competitive...
There still remains a lot of discussion about what ‘edge computing’ really means. At its core, it’s more about how control technologies are used than what they do.
As the data from factories scales exponentially, the ability to access that data transparently becomes critical. If we want the Industrial Internet of Things to truly be a game...
It’s been hard to miss all the activity going on recently around Time-Sensitive Networking and OPC UA. Here’s what it means for the near-term future of industrial networking.
Profibus & Profinet International works to make technologies like Time-Sensitive Networking easy for end users, but we also help automation companies build TSN-capable products...
Once again, a group of companies has banded together to create a vendor-independent standard and found a home in Profibus International to promote, harmonize, and certify their...
With Ethernet having become the preferred industrial network type, do fieldbus networks still play a role? The answer depends on the application, even though Ethernet is clearly...
Recent innovations in industrial Ethernet’s physical layer—Single Pair Ethernet and Ethernet Advanced Physical Layer—are being heralded as game-changers for their ability to extend...
As ever-more amounts of manufacturing data are being used at enterprise IT levels, the challenge of easily accessing, collecting, and processing that data is growing. To tackle...
Integrating an existing industrial communication standard with an up-and-coming method often creates headaches. But several industry experts see an easy path to integrating IO...
It’s an exciting time for the factory automation sensor and process control instrumentation markets as Ethernet evolves for wider use in manufacturing. With 2-wire industrial ...
What does digital transformation mean for industrial networks? How can a future-proof networking strategy help companies go digital? What are the trends in automation networks...
Understanding how the ‘black channel principle’ ensures safety-related messages get from their source to their destination and IO-Link’s role in simplifying the sensor-to-cloud...
Though standardization efforts for Time-Sensitive Networking continue at pace, it is still years before industry should expect to see a bumper crop of compatible products.
A variety of reasons have contributed to the slowing of industrial Ethernet’s growth rate over the past several months, but all signs continue to point toward it becoming the ...
During a panel discussion at PI North America’s general meeting, industry experts talked about how the Industrial Internet of Things is affecting the needed skillsets, tools and...
From the domain expertise required to filter the required data in the correct way to expanding automation and IT networking knowledge requirements, the Internet of Things is dramaticall...
If you thought the Internet of Things has been moving fast so far, buckle up, because all indications show that we are only seeing the first glimpses of a plethora of new technologies...
Because the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) leverages so many existing technologies, it seems that everybody and their mother can claim to have the necessary expertise. But...
Research by the Industrial Internet Consortium highlights how the Internet of Things is turning the venture capital model upside down when it comes to investing in industry.
A first-person account of how the Japanese market is approaching Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things based on observations from two major automation fairs held recently in...
Most of the talk surrounding the Industrial Internet of Things focuses on moving data upward and outward. Equally important is enabling your factory to handle incoming data.
Though there’s no way to tell exactly what the network of the future will look like under the effects of the Internet of Things, there are three universal network aspects worth...
As new groups touting next-generation manufacturing sprout up around the world, the automation industry scrambles to create common communication standards to enable interoperability...
With a focus on securing networked ICS devices, a session at PI North America’s annual meeting delivered specific industry best practices that you can put into practice today ...
AGV maker Fori Automation adds wireless operation via Profinet to its industrial transport vehicles, improving plant safety and delivering operational flexibility to its customers...
In this second blog post covering highlights from the Profinet panel discussion at this year’s ARC Forum, industry experts weigh in on whether or not safety over Ethernet is ready...
Shop floor-to-top floor connectivity and wireless enablement often get most of the attention in discussions about industrial Ethernet. At a recent Profinet panel discussion, the...
An exclusive Automation World survey asks how interest in legacy field bus technology is holding up in the face of industrial Ethernet advances. Results reveal some concerns, ...
Siemens, GE, Endress+Hauser, and Phoenix Contact outline the reasons behind their alliance with the Profinet & Profibus industrial communications protocols.
A reader questions a statement about Ethernet replacing fieldbus and opens up an interesting discussion about the application and status of both communication technologies.
As industrial networks get larger and the equipment on these networks perform more complex tasks at higher speeds, there’s a growing need for more bandwidth.
Ethernet has gained critical mass as the industrial network of choice. Automation and control engineers can dig into some of the details of cabling, managed switches and topologies...
From oil platforms to auto parts manufacturing, the how-to of industrial network protection is improving in this post-Stuxnet world. Given the high cost of downtime, the motivation...
