The automation sector debate their future in Madrid

What will be the standard governing the macro-sector of automation during the next decade? What role will play Spain and its economy in the development of this new market? A generic is will end up imposing as it has happened in other sectors? They are some of the questions that settle in Madrid on June 27, in the framework of the 1st day technology official Profibus/Profinet (name given to the most widespread on industrial automation standard). On this day practical aspects of the application of this technology were addressed, also.

The official Conference, the first of its characteristics being held in Spain, was convened by the Spanish Association Profibus/Profinet & IO Link, and gathered at the Auditorium Hotel in Madrid to large corporations in the sector: from Siemens to ABB, Logitek, Phoenix Contact, Harting Iberia, SMC, Lapp Group and Pepperl Fuchs. Among these eight companies added a turnover of more than 2.5 billion euros and more than 6,200 employees.

In the big official event of the sector, were conducted five talks where different specialists in the industry (engineers, technology consultants, teachers, system integrators) systems, etc. exposed their knowledge about this technology. Also unveiled, by real demonstrations on-site improvement measures for current and future installations with Automation standard Profibus & Profinet.

The official day of industrial automation, the first of its characteristics being held in Spain, was convened by the Spanish Association Profibus/Profinet & IO Link.

The security of automation networks was one of the day's key concepts as you could see in the first 'Functional safety - PROFIsafe' talk. During the paper security technology integrated PROFIsafe from the brief description of current norms, different types of communications, and various topologies, the black channel, integrated for various error-handling mechanisms are presented and some of the concepts of programming (available languages and trigonometric functions for complex kinematic).

Subsequently, the attendees 'Slave Profibus' talk can meet the three versions of the technology Proficus DP (DP-V0, DP-V1, DP-V2), in addition to approaching the types of slaves that this technology can be used, its use in a wide range of applications and the different transmission (RS485, RS485-iS and optical fiber) technology.

The third paper 'Profibus PA' served to introduce this technology, a field bus in accordance with IEC 61158-2 which supplies power and transmits the communication digitally by one cable between the host system DCS or PLC and field instrumentation. PROFIBUS PA allows information about the status and control commands are transmitted digitally between the master and up to 31 participants connected to the same segment (cable).

In addition to safety, another of the topics addressed during the day was that of wireless communications. These systems gain weight in the industry since they provide greater flexibility and ease of implementation. The 'Wireless' presentation showed the most important features of these systems and their use in networks based on Profibus and Profinet.

Finally, in the paper ' Profinet network infrastructure: Standardization of the wiring connectorization and network devices ' explained the different levels or conformance classes of the Profinet standard. And it was recalled that, from the point of view of the physical implementation in an industrial environment, this standard allows information of wiring, the Assembly and the active components of network in the different possible topologies.

Each talk was led by some of the companies participating in the event. Thus, among other presentations, ABB and Phoenix Contact, Siemens taught their current technologies for projects with PROFIsafe. Pepperl Fuchs showed their solutions for slave Profibus DP as I/O remote (signals in conventional areas both for ATEX zones), converters of frequency, Robots, etc. And Harting and Lapp Group and Siemens unveiled their possible solutions for Standardization of the connectorization of wiring projects.