News archive of the year 2004

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News archive of the year 2004

Exhibition 'Het Instrument 2004'

On 1 to 5 November 2004, PROCENTEC participated on the exhibition ‘Het Instrument’ to promote the PROFIBUS technology and the ProfiTrace Analyzer.

There was a demonstrator on the booth in which DP and PA equipment from more than 40 manufacturers was working together. This installation was maintained by 4 asset management stations (Siemens PDM, ABB Smartvision and Endress+Hauser FieldCare). The ProfiTrace Analyzer was guarding the complete installation and logged the retries, fall-outs and diagnostic messages.

Korean PROFIBUS Center accredited as PCC

The Korean PROFIBUS Center has been officially accredited as Competence Center by PROCENTEC.

Dennis van Booma inspected the facilities at the Agency for Technology and Standards in Seoul and audited the technical know-how of its staff. His final conclusion was that they are ready to support the industrial manufacturers, integrators and end-users of Korea professionally. PROFIBUS is going up the hill in Asia and they have a big challenge ahead of them. The band between the Netherlands and Korea seems to be very good and more cooperation will follow in the form of training courses, certification and products.

Product Development training in Scottsdale, USA

The latest session of the Product Development training was held in Scottsdale (USA) on 2 and 3 August, two days before the General Assembly meeting of the PTO.

There were 13 attendees from a variety of companies that are going to start up a PROFIBUS development project. With this training the knowledge and experience level of the engineers in the roadmap from product specifications up to certification has increased enormously. There was great interest in the first-class certification tool ‘ProfiScript’ and the ‘ProfiTrace’ analyzer.

Certification tool supports the official DP-V1 test cases

ProfiScript is a professional tool that automatically tests and verifies the complete protocol functionality of PROFIBUS DP, DP-V1 and PA devices. It has enormous flexibility and is very easy to use.

At this moment it is the only tool available, which can power-down/up devices and manipulate I/Os by an external power switch. The implemented syntax interpreter can also test the GSD file. This tool will save you time and money during your development and certification phase! The results you get will certainly reflect in the testlabs. A FREE trial version of ProfiScript is available with limited capability.

‘DZH’ receives installation certificate

On the 13th of May 2004, Rob Visser the managing director of the water purification plant, DZH received the PROFIBUS installation certificate from Dennis van Booma.

Rob Visser was pleased about the completion of the project. DZH will celebrate its 130th birthday and from the beginning it has always used the latest technologies to make the production process as efficient as possible. PROFIBUS will certainly do its contribution.

Product Development training in Korea

On 6 to 8 July the Product Development training course was organized in Seoul, Korea. PROFIBUS experts Dennis van Booma and Paulo Silva took care of the lectures and demonstrations.

There were 15 attendees from a variety of companies. The goal of this session was to enable Korean automation companies in developing PROFIBUS interfaces. This will increase the number of PROFIBUS applications at the end-user side because of the availability of more Korean products. There was a big interest in DP-V1 implementation and master development.

ProfiTrace Demonstration Day

Almost 70 people attended the ProfiTrace demonstration day which was held on 25 November 2004.

The participants witnessed the power and easy use of the PROFIBUS Analyzer on USB. Demonstrations were done on a DP and PA installation.

Installation audit at Soporcel - Portugal

We have audited a new PROFIBUS installation at the pulp and paper mill Soporcel in Portugal. Two engineers inspected the physical implementation and the design.

This project is for the PROFIBUS community important, because it proofs the acceptance of PROFIBUS in pulp and paper applications. The ProfiTrace Analyser, the PA Probe and an oscilloscope were used for the field measurements. With these tools, 470 PA instruments were verified in less than 2 days.

Fault finding presentation at the UK conference

At the UK conference on 23 June 2004, Dennis van Booma of PROCENTEC presented the topic fault finding in PROFIBUS installations.

During his presentation he gave an overview about the available tools and what the fault finding strategy is. He concluded his presentation with a demonstration of ProfiTrace on a running network. The listeners could experience how easy it is to find faults if you have the proper tools at hand.

Certified PROFIBUS Installer

In addition to the successful Certified Engineer course, PROCENTEC will start this year with the first sessions of the ‘Certified PROFIBUS Installer’ - an essential course for electrical engineers and technicians needing skills in the installation and testing of complete PROFIBUS networks.

The course provides theoretical and practical training in PROFIBUS network technology using a hands-on approach. In most projects it is a requirement for the companies who are engaged in the fieldbus installation. Certified PROFIBUS Installers are the first step to achieving reliable and trouble-free networks.

Certified session had a 100 % pass list

Every student passed the Certified Engineer session which was held in May 2004.

People from the USA, Denmark, Korea and Italy joined the training. The Italian attendee, Mr. Paolo Ferrari is the first one ever that managed to get a 100 % score on the theory exam. Congratulations Paolo!

National PROFIBUS Day

On 30 November 2004 the PROFIBUS organization of the Netherlands organized the National PROFIBUS Day.

Dennis van Booma gave several presentations about cabling, design rules and demonstrated the setup of a PROFIBUS installation from scratch. On our booth there was a constant interest in the Analyzer. Especially the direct physical connection to PA attracted people. The next PROFIBUS day will take place in 2005.

PA Probe

The PA Probe is a small but high-tech extension for ProfiTrace that makes it possible to do measurements directly on the PA bus.

With the PA Probe, you can use ProfiTrace on DP as well as PA networks and finally cover all installations with one tool.

Training for the pulp and paper mill 'Soporcel'

In March 2004, a group of engineers from the Portuguese pulp and paper mill 'Soporcel' and their integrators: Eurocon (SE), Jaakko Poyry (FIN) and Andritz (FIN) were trained by PROCENTEC in DP and PA technology.

The engineers will be responsible for automating a couple of mills in which hundreds of DP and PA instruments will be installed. Asset management and total cost of ownership are the key factors for using PROFIBUS in these joint European projects.