PROFINET: Designed for Openness and Determinism

A look at Profinet’s development, from its Profibus fieldbus origins to its adpatability amid industrial Ethernet’s evolution, and how it provides the determinism required by many industrial users.

By James R. Koelsch, contributing writer

When your factory runs only three months a year, you’re always investing in ways to increase the yield from your equipment. That’s why Joey Scarborough, general manager of the cotton gin facility owned by the Mildstead Farm Group in Shorter, Ala., chose Profinet for its industrial Ethernet communications to pass data between controllers and automation devices.

Part of Milstead Farm’s operating strategy is to be proactive at continuously maintaining and improving the gin’s equipment and process controls. A combination of proper maintenance and new equipment has been largely responsible for a gradual, but steady increase in the gin’s productivity over the years. Production topped 50 bales per hour in 2018, double the initial 25 bales an hour that the gin could process when operations began in 1998.

Scarborough believes Milstead Farm’s program of continuous improvement will be easier to perpetuate with Profinet as the backbone protocol of its control network. This open protocol defines both cyclic and acyclic communications among the Profinet components connected to standard Ethernet cables. With the protocol, the network can accommodate any Profinet product developed by