Welcome once more to PROFINEWS UK, bringing you all the news of events and opportunities surrounding the PROFIBUS and PROFINET community in the UK.

Bob Squirrell,
PROFIBUS Group Chairman

2011 Seminar Series

Following seven successful years of annual conferences, PROFIBUS UK is delighted to announce a new event format starting in 2011.

Recognising that in this new era of austerity it will be difficult for our customers to get to every event they need, we have decided to ramp up and spread out our popular Free Seminar series - including aspects of the Conference that everyone appreciated most: the practical demonstrations, professional "how to" presentations and real-world case studies.

We're planning on presenting 7 events during 2011. Two will be in the south of England, one in Manchester and 4 in Scotland. Three of the events will cover Factory Automation, 3 will cover the Process Industries while the Manchester event will focus on Safety and Security across the broad industrial spectrum.

What delegates thought of our free seminars

Here are just a few of the comments we received from delegates that attended these events:

Very informative event ... with excellent demonstrations and presentations.
Excellent organisation, venue etc. Presenters all very knowledgable and enthusiastic.
Good positioning of Profibus, Profinet, Profienergy and Profisafe.
Very informative, great way to introduce the new functions.
Very useful few hours that helped my understanding. Thank you.
Very informative with lots of valued information which was of a level understandable by new experts.
Very good for my time
Very good overview of all aspects that must be considered. Very well structured.
Thanks again for an excellent 2 days in Manchester. I found the "networking" opportunities to be at least as valuable as the presentations and demos ( and they were pretty useful!).

Watch this space for further details.

New PROFINET documents available

The following PROFINET documents have been published and can be found on the Profibus website:

PROFINET IO Specification V2.3 which is part of the IEC61158/61784 and consists of the following 4 documents:

Overview for PI Specifications
2.702, V2.3, October 2010
Application Layer services for decentralized periphery and distributed automation;
2.712, V2.3, October 2010
Application Layer protocol for decentralized periphery and distributed automation;
2.722, V2.3, October 2010
Profiles for decentralized periphery;
2.742, V2.3, October 2010

PI members can download the documents here

Host Application Profile 3.902, V1.0, August 2010

PI members can download the document here

Profile Guidelines, Part 4: Universal Parameter Server
3.532, V1.0, September 2010
PI members can download the document here

PROFINET Planning Guideline 8.061, V1.04, November 2010
PI members can download the document here

Members of Regular Grade and higher can download these documents free of charge using their logon and password. Non members can purchase the documents using the downloadable pricelist.

Certified OPC Professional Courses

OPC (Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control) is used for data sharing between PCs based on Microsoft COM/DCOM mechanisms. In automation, it is used for sharing information between different parts of the control systems, i.e. between Controllers, SCADA systems, HMI panels, and engineering stations, etc. While PROFIBUS fits from the PLC to control devices, in general OPC fits in the area from PLC to software applications. PROFIBUS is on the Control Network whereas OPC is on the Operations Network.

The OPC Training Institute will shortly be coming to the UK to present some hands-on OPC workshops in London. Paid-up members of The PROFIBUS Group can claim a 5% discount on the course fees.

The Certified OPC Professional (COP) courses provide Automation professionals with the right skills to properly utilize OPC technology to improve plant efficiency and control. Each course offers practical hands-on experience you can apply immediately. Graduates will know exactly how to setup (or troubleshoot) an OPC connection and make it secure the instant they enter the plant.

In common with The PROFIBUS Group, the OPC Training Institute is strictly Vendor-neutral and does not sell its own products or integration services. So students can focus on learning OPC and they don't have to bother with a sales presentation. They also use products from a variety of vendors to provide well-rounded and unbiased knowledge about different problem solving methods.

More information on the courses and how to register:

Level 1: OPC and DCOM Diagnostics	February 8 - 9, 2011	Details
Level 2: OPC Security	February 10 - 11, 2011	Details

Come and Join Us!

PI new logo

PI is the largest automation organization of its type in the world, with a network of regional offices and over 1400 globally-based member companies. PI also has a network of competence centers, training and test organizations that contribute to and support developers, integrators and end users. No other fieldbus organization has a 'community' better able to support the automation market and its end users with solutions designed to help manufacturing enterprises maximize profits.

So why not join us? It's relatively inexpensive and brings many attractive and cost-saving benefits.

Download complete Up to Date list of benefits and costs
Download Membership Application