The Durban branch was pleased to welcome Michael Garnham who presented and sponsored the August Technology Evening. Michael is the chairman of Profibus/Profinet International Southern Africa (PISA) and also manages the Profibus and Profinet competence centre (PCC) operated by Industrial Data Xchange in Johannesburg. He regularly attends international conferences on these technologies and so he shared some updates from the international Profibus and Profinet community from his recent visits to Australia and Italy. At IDX he is involved in training in industrial data communications technologies, software development and providing solutions for fieldbus testing and protocol conversion. Michael holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, is a certified Profibus and Profinet engineer and is currently busy with his Profibus designer certification, so he was certainly well qualified to present to us.
Michael’s presentation answered the following pertinent questions:
· Are we using the correct grounding techniques for our Profibus and Profinet installations? Michael highlighted some of the new concepts being introduced into the guidelines laid out by Profibus International when it comes to earthing. One aspect of special interest to many of those present was the need to connect both ends of a cable shield to earth in order to minimise electromagnetic interference because earthing the shield at one end only provides protection against electrostatic interference. He also emphasised the need for the electrical supply to have the neutral star point earth corrected in a way that minimises current flow through Profibus cable shields – something that is often not the case in older process plants when they are converted to use Profibus.
· The need for Profibus system design certification. Our devices are certified, so are our installers, but what about the design itself?
· Migration from Profibus to Profinet – are you worried about security? Shades of Stuxnet? Michael used a small demonstration rig to show the audience one of the features in the Profinet protocol that helps makes it resilient to a common cyber-attack, and showed the use of diagnostics to demonstrate the fact that a working system is not necessarily in a healthy condition.
The meeting concluded with further conversations about Profibus and other modern communication systems over some drinks at the dinner tables, where everyone enjoyed the networking opportunity as well as the usual good meal provided by the Durban Country Club.
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