Posted to News on 29th Apr 2008, 18:55
Profibus claims global lead in fieldbus market
With more than a million nodes already installed, Profinet is claimed to be optimally established in the field of industrial automation. In the initial count carried out for Profinet, each node represents an automation end device with a Profinet interface. Devices such as switches, hubs and routers (ie structural components of the Ethernet infrastructure) are not counted.
To get an overview of the definite number of Profinet nodes already on the market, PI (Profibus and Profinet International) requested a notary to determine the number of installed Profinet nodes. The initial count covered the time period from 2002 to 2007. By the end of 2007, 1.14million Profinet nodes had been installed in various applications.
Joerg Freitag, PI Deputy Chairman, is setting ambitious goals: "We estimate that 3million Profinet nodes will have been installed by the end of 2010. This corresponds to an average annual increase of 37 per cent." This puts the market forecast for Profinet above average. A study published by the ARC Advisory Group in January 2008 sees a 27.5 per cent annual increase on the global market for Ethernet-capable devices over the next five years. Freitag says: "With Profibus, we have the largest installed base on the fieldbus market. By integrating today's fieldbus systems into Profinet via a proxy, we offer optimal protection of investment for device manufacturers and system operators."
The Profibus market is claimed to look just as good. Last year, PI recorded the highest growth ever of installed nodes. In 2007, the number of Profibus nodes purchased grew to 4.5million. This means that 23.3million Profibus nodes had been installed by the end of 2007.
The number of Profibus PA devices increased by 120,000 to 750,000 in 2007. The total number of Profibus nodes installed in the process industry now amounts to 4million, which corresponds to an additional 700,000 nodes in 2007.
The number of PROFIsafe nodes increased by 180,000 to 410,000 in 2007 and the number of PROFIsafe systems by 15,000 to 41,000.
These figures attest to the fact that Profibus is a global market leader in fieldbus communication. Profinet has been able to tie in to this success seamlessly.
