PROFINET: Widely adopted by industry

PI reports that, in terms of newly connected nodes, PROFINET represented a market share of almost 30% in 2018, making it the world’s leading Ethernet-based communication solution for industrial automation.

And, 30 years after the founding of PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI), this success is no accident. From the very start, industry-leading manufacturers collaborated on a joint fieldbus, PROFIBUS – and then on PROFINET, which tackles the increasing demands of a wide range of industries with a consistent and future-proof approach. At the same time, they worked on the development and market launch of a communication system for sensors and actuators, now known as IO-Link.

Today, the Advisory Board alone – the highest technical decision-making body – contains members representing 15 global manufacturers and innovative universities. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In 2019, in the various working groups, over 600 employees of PI member companies contributed to the development and advancement of new or existing technologies based on the requirements of the Industry 4.0 environment, on the maintenance of established technologies for increasing quality and on operational support measures for users. Altogether, they held over 250 meetings during 2019, averaging one meeting per workday, geared toward the developing the technology and marketing of PROFINET, PROFIBUS or IO-Link.

Just like then, data transfer remains the focus of PI’s work today. In the case of PROFINET, this especially involves the topic of time-sensitive networking (TSN) and Ethernet Advanced Physical Layer (APL) for the process industry. With IO-Link, the field of wireless communication was recently added as IO-Link Wireless. But the semantic description of data is also becoming increasingly significant in the working groups. In these ways, PI is ensuring that its technologies remain at the forefront of the industrial market, well into the future.

More information about PROFINET: https://www.profibus.com/technology/profinet/

More information about PI UK: www.profibusgroup.com