Profinet Explained

Without industrial communication, complex tasks like controlling machines and entire production lines, monitoring state-of-the-art transportation systems or managing power distribution would be impossible.

Profinet – the leading Industrial Ethernet standard for automation – supports you in creating end-to-end, integrated processes and configuring networked interfaces.

PROFINET is a mechanism to exchange data between controllers and devices.

Controllers could be PLCs, DCSs, or PACs (Programmable Logic Controllers, Distributed Control Systems, or Programmable Automation Controllers.).

Devices could be I/O blocks, vision systems, RFID readers, drives, process instruments, proxies, or even other controllers.

PROFINET exchanges data quickly and deterministically.

Required speeds vary depending on the application; process instruments update in hundreds of milliseconds, factory devices provide quicker updates (<10milliseconds), and motion control synchronization is even more demanding.

Determinism means the messages arrive when they’re supposed to.

The goal is to further automate production across all levels and make the best possible use of resources.

Maximum flexibility provides you with greater freedom for customised machine and plant concepts.

Its unrivalled efficiency allows you to use resources optimally, while its unique performance ensures high precision and product quality.

Ethernet is a global standard that sets no boundaries between cable, fibre-optic and wireless and enables almost any topology.

Since Profinet is 100% Ethernet, Profinet users benefit from all the advantages, possibilities and future innovations of the Ethernet.

PROFINET is the industrial communication standard for maximum flexibility, efficiency, and performance.

It allows modular machine concepts to be implemented especially easily and quickly thanks to features such as variant management functions and a modular architecture.

At the same time, PROFINET is easy to operate, integrate, and commission with the help of efficient configuration and diagnostic tools.

And when it comes to performance, fast data exchange, a high data rate, and deterministic communication with minimum jitter provide a solid foundation for high production output.

PROFINET also offers the best diagnostic functions available on the market, so that you always have a firm handle on things both locally and remotely.

The market is increasingly demanding individual, personalized products down to a batch size of 1, which need to be available as quickly as possible.

To do this, production must become faster, more efficient, and more flexible, for example through a consistent flow of data between product development, production, and service.

Machines, products, and controllers must therefore be able to exchange information in real-time.

Auto-configurations are required to absorb the massive increase in network users, while high bandwidths must also be available to autonomously control and optimize processes and machines.

PROFINET is the only standard that can master these challenges.