The Durban branch of the SAIMC held its monthly technology meeting as usual at the Premier Splendid Hotel in Pinetown. Jurie Weidemann, external sales engineer at Pepperl+Fuchs, presented to an interested audience on the topic of Ethernet APL.
In his introduction, Jurie very succinctly put it: “The world of technology is moving more and more toward digital communication across platforms. We all know there have been many digital communication technologies released in the past to enable better communication capabilities for the process industry. Few of them have been able to cut across protocols and different sectors of the process – now there is no longer a reason for the process industry to lag behind.”
Jurie captivated his audience with his lively talk about progress from analogue signal transmission through various stages of digital communication, and how the speed and integrity of the transmitted information has improved over a relatively few years. A further important aspect is the ability of the latest systems to be function driven rather than device driven, with interoperability being an key aspect.
This was an extremely polished presentation and with his 24 years of experience in the process automation industry, Jurie was well qualified to present to the Durban members.
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Jurie Weidemann (right) being thanked by John Owen-Ellis.
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