The International Profibus Conference held at Ragley Hall, Warwickshire, England, has been hailed as an outstanding success by its organisers, the UK Profibus Group. Over 100 delegates from across 20 countries attended, including America, Trinidad, China, and South Africa. The Southern Africa Profibus Competence Centre (PCC) was represented by Michael Bean from IDXOnline.
Being at the forefront of Profibus technology, local industrial solutions provider IDXOnline was recently appointed by the Regional Profibus Association (RPA) to operate the Southern Africa PCC, the first of its kind in Africa. All PCCs carry the formal endorsement of Profibus International, the parent organisation of all RPAs worldwide, which is the world's largest organisation for industrial communications. Profibus International also ensures that all PCCs adhere to stringent quality standards.
"We had an absolutely fantastic conference with much new material presented covering the latest developments in Profibus, Profinet, Profisafe, Profidrive and Profibus PA. The content and quality of the presentations was excellent. It was a great opportunity to establish excellent contacts with various representatives from other international PCCs. The delegates were delighted with the technical content, the warm friendly atmosphere, the impressive features of historic Ragley Hall and the entertainment, in particular The Kingmaker's Feast at Warwick Castle," said Michael Bean, training manager of the Southern African PCC.
Full details of the conference along with many other similarly enthusiastic testimonials from the likes of Rolls Royce Marine Electrical Systems, The Water and Sewerage Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, Infraserv Höchst Technik, Burkert Fluid Control, Hawke Fieldbus, Endress+Hauser and Siemens can be found on the conference website at www.profibus.co.uk
Due to the success of the event, many of the speakers and exhibitors requested Profibus UK to consider hosting the event again next year. The Steering Committee readily agreed and the Profibus International Conference will take place at Ragley Hall on 21-22 June 2005.
Having launched Profibus more than 10 years ago, constant evolution of the open standard allowed Profibus to develop into the position of the world's leading fieldbus while always maintaining version compatibility, which protects investment in this bus technology. This concept qualifies Profibus as the one and only fieldbus for 'Total Plant Automation'. Profibus has substantial cost-saving potential, facilitates simplified engineering and maintenance as well as providing the diagnostic and maintenance information for asset management systems (AMS) that are vital for plant optimisation today.
The Southern Africa PCC offers a wide variety of Profibus related products and services and aims to strengthen local adoption and support of the Profibus standard. The centre is also aiming to create a close-knit Profibus community, consisting of product and service vendors, system integrators and end users.
The Southern Africa PCC services include call centre (Monday - Friday 8:30 - 16:30) and e-mail support free of charge; Internationally Certified Profibus installer's and engineer's training; supplementary training including system planning, troubleshooting and maintenance; system design and installation; system audits and installation certification; system support and troubleshooting; and remote network monitoring and predictive maintenance.
The internationally certified Profibus training courses offered by the southern Africa PCC are essential for anyone who designs, installs or maintains Profibus networks. The certification is a worldwide standard, marking the competence of an installer or engineer. It is increasingly becoming a basic requirement in order to design, install or operate on client Profibus networks. Once qualified, these specialists are automatically added to the PCC list of certified Profibus experts, ensuring an ever-growing resource point for Profibus professional personnel.
According to Bean, 30 centres of this kind have been established in countries around the world and form an infrastructure that has seen great success in the adoption of Profibus as the fieldbus of choice. "With an installed base of more than 10 million devices worldwide, Profibus enjoys a substantial lead over its nearest competitor. Profibus aims to grow this figure to 20 million devices by 2008. More than 2500 Profibus products from hundreds of vendors are successfully being used in more than half-a-million applications in manufacturing and process automation today. The Southern Africa Profibus Competence Centre carries the support of, and has a good working relationship with the majority of Profibus device manufactures and system integrators in southern Africa as well as a host of international contacts. We want to make Profibus the simplest, least troublesome fieldbus available. If you work with Profibus, make the Profibus Competence Centre your first port of call and let our network of experts do the hard work for you," says Bean.
About the Profibus Competence Centre of Southern Africa
The Profibus Competence Centre (PCC) of Southern Africa, operated by IDXOnline, was established at the beginning of 2004. It is the outcome of an initiative by the Regional Profibus Association of Southern Africa to provide vendor neutral support and training for organisations maintaining and installing Profibus systems in southern Africa.
Thirty centres of this kind have been established in countries around the world and form an infrastructure that has seen great success in the adoption of Profibus as the fieldbus of choice. With an installed base of more than 10 million devices it enjoys a substantial lead over its nearest competitor with growth to 20 million devices predicted by 2008.
The PCC carries the formal endorsement of the International Profibus Organisation which ensures that all such centres adhere to stringent quality standards. The PCC of southern Africa strives to bring the same comprehensive training and support available to Profibus users elsewhere in the world home to Profibus users in South Africa.
For more information contact Michael Bean, Profibus Competence Centre of Southern Africa, 011 465 7916, pcc@idxonline.com
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