Organization hosts plugfest to test controllers, devices

PI North America's Profinet plugfest in Ann Arbor, Mich., was attended by thirty-five engineers from 13 companies, who brought six controllers and 30 input/output (I/O) devices to the plugfest, which was designed to evaluate and test the products in a large network.

By PI North America August 18, 2016

PI North America, in cooperation with the Profi Interface Center, created the first North American Profinet plugfest, which was hosted by Phoenix Contact in Ann Arbor, Mich., on August 3-4. Thirty-five engineers from 13 companies brought six controllers and 30 input/output (I/O) devices to the plugfest. All Profinet products must be certified in accredited test labs, but the plugfest provided the opportunity to evaluate and test these products in a very large network. Testing was carried out in small groups around individual controllers with the devices circulating among the various controllers prior to creating one large network.

Tom Weingartner of Innovasic, Inc., who has attended plugfests in Europe, said of the North American version: "Plugfests are a great way to find out how your products perform with lots of other controllers and devices. We appreciate the opportunity to continuously improve our products and participate in such a well-attended event here in the U.S.-as always we learned a lot." The I/O devices included variable frequency drives (VFDs) and servo drives.

Edward Tom of Yaskawa America, Inc., said that the event was, "A great place for so many different device manufacturers to come together with one goal in mind-interoperability. It’s not often you can talk to a counterpart of a different company and collaborate to figure things out."

The event received a positive reaction from attendees and a Profinet Plugfest is being scheduled for 2017.

PI North America

www.us.profinet.com 

– Edited from a PI North America press release by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering industrial networking stories.