20 million nodes by 2008

Profibus International (representing more than 1200 member companies worldwide, including 22 in Australia and New Zealand) recently made two major announcements that highlight the remarkable success and adaptability of Profibus fieldbus technology.

Firstly, by the close of 2003 the number of Profibus nodes installed worldwide in factory and process automation applications exceeded 10 million - far surpassing the figures for competitor fieldbus technologies. Secondly, the new ethernet-based automation solution PROFInet has now been launched. PROFInet provides a scalable, high-performance migration path to the world of industrial ethernet - not only for Profibus users, but for users of other fieldbus systems as well.

"Profibus can meet a very wide range of needs across the automation spectrum," commented Edgar Kuester, Profibus International Chairman. "By all accounts, the contribution made by Profibus to both process and discrete manufacturing is momentous, dwarfing those made by competitive technologies. Furthermore, the market's enthusiasm for Profibus shows no sign of decreasing and we believe that the number of installed devices will reach 20 million by 2008."

About 1.3 million Profibus devices are now installed in process plants worldwide. Almost 25% of these have Profibus PA ('process automation') interface conforming to IEC 61158-2 (required for hazardous area use) in process plants; the remaining 75% are Profibus DP ('distributed periphery') devices in upstream (eg, drives, valve positioners) and downstream (eg, bottling/packaging) process applications.