Yokogawa joins Profibus group

Runcorn, UK – Yokogawa Electric Corp. has joined the PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation eV (PNO), an interest group for the PROFIBUS and PROFINET standard communication protocols that are widely used in the industrial automation sector.

“In addition to FOUNDATION(TM) fieldbus and the HART protocols, we see PROFIBUS DP and PROFINET as especially important protocols for industrial automation - not only in central Europe and other mature markets, but increasingly in the Asia-Pacific region and China,” said Masatoshi Nakahara, general manager of the marketing centre at the Yokogawa Industrial Automation Business HQ.

Yokogawa already offers a range of PROFIBUS-based products and solutions, and aims to expand this portfolio in the future, added Nakahara, highlighting Yokogawa’s position among the leading suppliers to the process automation sector.

“Along with our strong worldwide presence, we believe that we are the market leader in the Asia-Pacific region, China, and Japan - a situation that will benefit PROFIBUS technology in general,” he commented.

Originally developed to meet the needs of the manufacturing industry, PROFIBUS has evolved into a fieldbus standard for both discrete manufacturing and process automation. PROFIBUS and PROFINET are standardised under a range of international standards, the most important being IEC 61158 and 61784.

PNO is owner of the PROFIBUS and PROFINET technologies, and is responsible for the future development of these standards. PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, of which the PNO is a part, claims to be the world’s largest interest group for industrial communications, covering all aspects of industrial automation.