The first Profibus International Competence Centre (PICC) has been set-up in Australia, at Tyco Flow Control Pacific in Smithfield, New South Wales.
Tyco Flow Control is the world’s largest manufacturer of industrial valving and related controls, according to Tyco Control manager and manager of PICC, Nick Smith.
The new centre, called the Tyco Competence Centre, is the first location in Australia to be accredited by Profibus International (PI).
“It is a stringent accreditation process and Tyco worked hard to meet all the criteria. The demand for ‘high-tech’ automation is growing rapidly in Australia and throughout Asia Pacific. The Tyco Competence Centre will play a major role in spreading the technology throughout this region,” said Smith in a statement to the industry.
Profibus is now a $60 billion market worldwide and dominates all sectors of industrial automation, according to Tyco Flow Control. It has more devices in the field than all rival Fieldbus systems combined, says Smith.
The Tyco Competence Centre will support companies in new product development. It will also provide technical support for Profibus manufacturers and users in Australia, which include level measurement company Endress+Hauser.
The new centre will also host demonstrations of interoperating products and provide a range of certified training programmes.
The Centre’s support framework includes at least three Profibus experts, along with hardware equipment from various vendors and system test lab operations.
Tyco will commence its training programme on 13th November 2008 at its Sydney premises, which will consist of an internationally-accredited, certified one-day Profibus Installer course.
The course will be suitable for engineers and technicians and will cover the layout, installation and testing of Profibus DP and PA networks. A 3.5-day certified Profibus Engineers course covering network design, commissioning and live fault finding will be scheduled for early 2009.
“For both greenfield developments and plant refurbishments, introducing Profibus will save time and money during the design and engineering phases. With Profibus, more and better data are available during operation, which means plant management can be improved significantly. This leads to better plant utilisation, higher throughputs and more predictable quality,” said a spokesperson for Endress+Hauser.
“Advanced asset management strategies can be employed — such as predictive maintenance — avoiding downtime in the future and reducing maintenance costs still further. Profibus is witnessing tremendous adoption rates and is expected to exceed 30 million nodes worldwide in 2009.”
Representing Profibus International during the accreditation process was Manchester Metropolitan University’s (MMU) principal lecturer at the department of engineering and technology, faculty of science and engineering, Andy Verwer. He is also responsible for the Profibus International Competence Centre at MMU.
Course information and enrolment forms can be downloaded from www.profibuscentre.com.au The new website represents all sections of the new Australian Competence Centre. Also, those who wish to receive regular news and information on developments within Profibus may register on the website.
Visit www.profibus.com for more information about the Profibus system.