An opportunity for hands-on experience with Profibus/Profinet

This conference will use a multi-stream presentation approach to allow delegates to choose attendance at the main conference, the Workshops and the exhibition. In parallel with the main two-day conference, which presents the latest technology developments in fieldbuses and examples of Profibus and Profinet applications, there will be a set of workshop presentations providing a hands-on practical approach. These workshop sessions will demonstrate the application of diagnostics and health checking tools in four sessions covering both Profibus PA and DP installations, plus Profinet installations. These are the procedures that would be used during commissioning or troubleshooting on fieldbus installations, and involve health monitoring of both the sensors and the system wiring.

The Profinet diagnostics will be presented by Vladimir Kulla of Siemens, where he is responsible for Profinet software development, and also for the Certification Laboratory and PI Competence Centre in Prague. The session describing health checking on a Profibus PA segment will be run by Thomas Klatt of Pepperl + Fuchs, who has been mainly responsible for the technical training and documentation at P+F. Klatt will also provide one of the presentations at the main conference, discussing the use of Profibus PA in hazardous area applications, which will cover the advantages and disadvantages of FISCO and FNICO based systems, and compare them with the high-power trunk concept.

Health checking

Andy Verwer will be responsible for the workshop that discusses Profibus DP health checking: Verwer will be well known to UK Profibus users as the lead consultant in the UK Profibus Competence Centre, and a Principal Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Department of Engineering & Technology, Faculty of Science & Engineering. MMU has provided support and training in instrumentation and control for the local and national industry for over 30 years in the form of short courses, consultancy, feasibility studies and software development for control system training, and PI was delighted to have appointed MMU as the UK's certified Profibus Competence Centre in 1997. As one of the 30 International Profibus Competence Centres, MMU offers an extensive range of Profibus consultancy and training services, including Certified Profibus Engineer and Certified Profibus Installer, a course that was designed at the University, and will shortly reach the milestone of 100 courses presented. Verwer has now trained over 1000 technicians and engineers as certified installers, and over 150 certified Profibus engineers, both at MMU and on-site in locations as far afield as Australia, Southern Africa and Singapore. Some of this experience will be passed on in a presentation to the first day of the main conference session, discussing the most common errors that should be avoided in Profibus installations.

In the fourth Workshop there will be a combined practical hands-on session run by Andy Smith of Endress + Hauser and Mark McCormick of Siemens Process Control, showing how to use Profibus PA engineering tools with their products and systems. The same four sessions will be repeated on both days of the conference.

The UK Profibus and Profinet User Conference is scheduled for Tuesday 24 and Wednesday 25 June 2008 at the Stratford Manor Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon near Birmingham, UK. For the full conference agenda and delegate registration forms visit the website at www.profi-bus.co.uk.