Market meets Omron's PROFINET products

On 28 and 29 October Omron Europe organized the third edition of the `PROFINET event' for existing and future customers. In 's-Hertogenbosch the participants were informed about the latest network trends as well as Omron's new PROFINET IO products.

Freedom to choose.

Globalisation requires flexibility. To supply machines, systems and solutions to end-users worldwide means you need to adapt to local needs and local preferences. With Omron, we believe you should have the freedom to choose from the many open networks for industrial automation, so that you can connect to anyone, anywhere in the world.  PROFINET is a promising new technology that delivers a closer integration of industrial automation with the IT world, providing higher performance and easier system management. Within the European automation market, PROFINET is quickly gaining acceptance and is destined to follow in the footsteps of PROFIBUS-DP.

Developed in close co-operation with customers.

Omron Europe has chosen to support PROFINET IO in the modular CJ PLC series, and in the SmartSlice remote I/O system. The first products have been developed in close co-operation with customers who were looking for an efficient, reliable and future-proof solution for their applications in the maritime industry. By using the standard functions for controller and network redundancy defined in PROFINET, a very flexible system has been set up, in which the user has a large freedom in choosing the most appropriate architecture.

The location of the 'PROFINET event' was the Omron site in 's-Hertogenbosch which is Omron’s European centre for development, production, distribution and marketing of industrial automation products. The participants received an introduction to Omron in which European R& D manager Tim Foreman underlined the fact that the factory in ' s-Hertogenbosch keeps up with other Omron factories in the world. Our high quality and short delivery times compensate for higher labour costs compared to Far Eastern countries. A guided tour through the factory showed Omrons Low-Cost Intelligent Automation (LCIA) concept in practice, in which automated inspection of manual assembly operations ensures a minimization of production errors. The first day was concluded by guest speaker Bert van der Linden of ATS Global with an introduction on the history and recent developments of industrial networks.

On the second day product manager Theo Mattaar introduced the fundamentals of PROFINET and the products that have been developed in 's-Hertogenbosch. A detailed explanation of the incorporated redundancy functions in Omron's PROFINET IO products, and a practical demonstration of this concluded the day. Among  the participants were distinguished companies from the maritime industry, such as dredging companies Royal Boskalis and Jan De Nul Group, as well as system integrators like Huisman Elektrotechniek and Alewijnse Marine. A representative of Lloyd's Register also participated in the event. Each of these companies has a particular approach to the use of networks within automation; this led to lively discussions and a good exchange of ideas over the two days..