Profibus and Profinet International

Profibus and Profinet International operates through the PI Support Center (PISC) based in Germany/Karlsruhe and coordinates the activities of a network of Regional PI Associations (RPAs), PI Competence Centers (PICCs), PI Training Centers (PITCs) and PI Test Labs (PITLs) in major industrialized countries.[1]

• Regional PI Associations are responsible for the regional support and localized marketing activities.
• PI Competence Centers deliver quality technical support to developers and users of products and systems.
• PI Training Centers deliver high-quality training to engineers and users.
• PI Test Labs provide test and certification services to guarantee the quality and performance of products.

Furthermore PI hosts a large number of active Working Groups having the responsibility for developing, standardizing and maintaining the supported technologies.

• C1 Marketing
• C2 Quality
• C3 Application Profiles
• C4 Integration

Regionally and globally about 1,700 member companies[2] are working closely together. Members of the organization can be vendors of hardware, software and systems as well as end users and operators, scientific institutes and federations provided they support the purposes of PI and the respective Regional PI Association (RPA).

The technical and marketing tasks of PI technologies are performed by committees and working groups. Different topics of the same scope are covered by working groups that are consolidated within one committee. The committees are organized in a flexible matrix structure, which enables better visibility and coordination of the committees and their working groups tasks. The committee chairmen align the comprehensive tasks at technical strategy meetings of the advisory board.[3]

• CA Profibus, the fieldbus for general use
• CB Profinet, industrial real-time Ethernet
• CC IO-Link, serial sensor interface including wireless and safety profiles
• CD Omlox, wireless location technology

Beside these core technologies the following technologies are also supported:

• OPC UA at Profinet[4]
• PROFIenergy, the profile for energymanagement in industrial applications
• PROFIsafe, the profile for safety applications
• PROFIdrive, the profile for drive applications
• Device Description Language (EDDL) in collaboration with the EDDL Cooperation Team (ECT)
• Interbus is hosted since 2011 by PI[5]

The PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation e.V. (PROFIBUS User Organisation, or PNO) was created in 1989. This group was composed mainly of manufacturers and users from Germany. In 1992, the first regional PROFIBUS Association (RPA) was founded (PROFIBUS Schweiz in Switzerland). Additional RPAs followed in Austria, Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands as well Sweden, Italy and Norway. In 1994 North America joined the group.

In 1995, all the eleven RPAs joined together under the international umbrella association PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) and the actual structure with a chairman and a vice chairman as a management board was established. In the following years additional RPAs from Asia joined PI. Today, PI is represented by 25 RPAs around the world.

Chairmen of Profibus and Profinet International:

• 1995 - 1997 Josef Kreidl
• 1997 - 2001 Klaus-Peter Lindner
• 2001 - 2007 Edgar Küster
• 2008 - 2012 Jörg Freitag
• 2012 - today Karsten Schneider

Vice chairmen of Profibus and Profinet International:

• 1995 - 2016 Michael Bryant
• 2016 - today Michael Bowne

• "Profibus and Profinet International". profibus.com. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
• "PI North America". us.profibus.com. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
• "PI United Kingdom". profibusgroup.com. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
• "PI Australia and New Zealand". profibusaustralia.com. Retrieved 2021-12-04.