Profinet has a much broader reach than Profibus and can enable better networking plant-wide. It integrates readily with IT infrastructures and with the Internet. It embraces Profibus and competing fieldbuses so that existing investments in skills and equipment can be retained during any migration to an Ethernet-based future.
By the end of 2008 1.6 million nodes were installed, having a 40% growth rate. Profinet allows a seamless integration to the company’s IT system, thus giving the user a full transparency to the factory floor.
The Profinet option module MCA 120 is available for the VLT AutomationDrive.