PI North America said 36 engineers from 13 companies brought seven controllers and 15 devices to Emerson’s Minnesota facility.
PI North America, in cooperation with the Profi Interface Center, held its fourth North American Profinet Plugfest, on April 15-16, 2026, at Emerson’s facility in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Thirty-six engineers from 13 companies attended the two-day event, bringing seven controllers and 15 devices for testing. Participating companies included Banner Engineering, Cisco, Dunkermotoren, Emerson, Grid Connect, Hilscher, InduSol, Phoenix Contact, Real Time Automation, SICK, Siemens and Valmet.
For Control Engineering subscribers, interoperability of automation network products adds to the ease of system integration, so more time can be spent optimizing processes, rather than connecting devices and systems.
All Profinet products must be certified in PI test labs, but the plugfest allowed engineers to test their Profinet devices and controllers in an environment that approximates real-world automation conditions. Some products were still in development, so the event allowed engineers to to evaluate them before formal certification. Testing was conducted in small groups around individual controllers, with devices rotating among controllers before being connected into a larger network. Becauseparticipants sought to identify the operating limits of their devices, the testing was conducted under confidential condition.
Michael Bowne, executive director at PI North America, said, “We’ve never had participation to this level at a Profinet Plugfest in North America. The devices were many and varied; there were drives, I/Os, virtual PLCs, switches, DCSs, process instruments, network analyzers and the official PI test lab setup for rapid troubleshooting.”
Torsten Paulsen, general manager of the Profi Interface Center, added, “As the North American Profinet test lab, we thoroughly enjoyed this plugfest. While we work with customers in the test lab daily, testing their product from start to finish, these events are different: Here we have a variety of products from different companies, at different stages of the development cycle –all at the same time.”
“Emerson has recently increased its portfolio and capabilities of products supporting the Profinet protocol, and we were happy to host this event to help ensure the easy multi-vendor interoperability customers expect from compliant devices and hosts,” said Steve Armstrong, vice president enterprise technology, Emerson.
Edited by Puja Mitra, WTWH Media, for Control Engineering, from a PI North America news release.
