First Profibus Competence Centre in Australia

Tyco Flow Control Pacific has been accredited by Profibus International (PI) as the first Profibus International Competence Centre (PICC) in Australia. Profibus is now a $60 billion market and dominates all sectors of industrial automation. It has more devices in the field than all rival Fieldbus systems combined.

Tyco Flow Control is the world's largest manufacturer of industrial valving and related controls. Rafael Koenig, Tyco Controls Manager and Manager of the PICC, explains: "The demand for ‘high-tech’ automation is growing rapidly in Australia and throughout Asia-Pacific. The Tyco Competence Centre will play a major role promoting and supporting the technology throughout this region."

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. 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 2011.

The Centre will support companies in product development, provide technical support for Profibus manufacturers and users, allow demonstrations of interoperability of products and provide a comprehensive range of certified Profibus training programs. The centre’s support framework includes the availability of Profibus experts, hardware equipment from various vendors and system test lab operations.

Profibus training programs offered by Tyco Flow Control include a certified one-day Profibus Installer course which is suitable for engineers and technicians and covers the layout, installation and testing of Profibus DP and PA networks. Additional courses include the 3.5-day Certified Profibus Engineer course covering network design, commissioning and live fault finding; and the none-accredited Profibus Troubleshooting and Maintenance course covering the theory about cabling, shielding, grounding and measurement tools. All training courses are available either on demand or as per the schedule published on the Profibus Centre website and can be conducted either at Tyco’s training facilities or at customer premises.

Profibus training course information and enrolment forms can be obtained from www.profibuscentre.com.au - the website of the new Profibus International Competence Centre.