Profinet market booming

Profinet is firmly established in the field of automation with over a million nodes installed around the world, according to PI (Profibus & Profinet International).

The company counted the number of Profinet installations over the period from 2002 to 2007 and found that 1.14 million nodes had been installed in various applications.

Each node represents an automation end device with a Profinet interface. Devices such as switches, hubs and routers or structural components of the Ethernet infrastructure are not counted.

“We estimate that 3 million Profinet nodes will have been installed by the end of 2010. This corresponds to an average annual increase of 37%,” said Joerg Freitag, PI deputy chairman.

The figures put the market forecast for Profinet above average. A study published by the ARC Advisory Group in January 2008 predicted a 27.5% annual increase on the global market for ethernet-capable devices over the next 5 years.

“With Profibus, we have the largest installed base on the fieldbus market,” said Freitag.

“By integrating today’s fieldbus systems into Profinet via a proxy, we offer optimal protection of investment for device manufacturers and system operators."

The Profibus market was just as successful. Last year, PI recorded that the number of Profibus nodes purchased annually had reached a record 4.5 million, meaning that 23.3 million Profibus nodes had been installed by the end of 2007.