Posted to News on 21st May 2018, 20:42
Continued growth in Profibus, Profinet, PROFIsafe and IO-Link
The installed base of devices with Profibus and Profinet interfaces is continuing to grow, according to Profibus & Profinet International (PI). Against the background of Industry 4.0 being incorporated into automation and production systems, this is described as a clear sign of the acceptance of PI technologies.
The development of Profinet is said to be very encouraging. In 2017, a record 4.5million Profinet devices were put on the market. This brought the total number to 20.9million at the end of 2017, which represents an increase of 27.5 per cent over the previous year (see graph).
2.3million Profibus devices were produced in 2017, only slightly fewer than the previous year. However, the total of 58.4million devices across all years still represents a record.
The development of PROFIsafe is still very encouraging: with 1.95million nodes put on the market, it has been able to achieve above-average growth again of nearly 28 per cent and now boasts 8.9million installed nodes.
IO-Link, in turn, experienced the largest increase of 52.8 per cent over the year in 2017. This brings the total number of installed IO-Link devices to more than 8.1million.
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