Tyco Flow Control Pacific have been accredited by Profibus International (PI) as the first Profibus International Competence Centre (PICC) in Australia. Profibus dominates all sectors of industrial automation.
Tyco Flow Control Pacific are manufacturers of industrial valving and related controls. Nick Smith, Tyco Flow Control Pacific’s Manager and Manager of the PICC, explains that it is a stringent accreditation process and Tyco Flow Control Pacific have worked hard to meet all the criteria. The demand for ‘high-tech’ automation is growing rapidly in Australia and throughout the Asia Pacific. The Tyco Competence Centre will play a major role in spreading the technology throughout this region.
For both greenfield developments and plant refurbishments, introducing Profibus will save time and money during the design and engineering phases. With Profibus, more and better data is available during operation, which means plant management can be improved significantly. This leads to better plant utilisation, higher throughputs and more predictable quality. Advanced asset management strategies such as predictive maintenance can be employed to avoid downtime in the future and reduce maintenance costs still further. Profibus is witnessing high adoption rates and is expected to exceed 30 million nodes worldwide in 2009.
Representing Profibus International during the accreditation process was Andy Verwer, Principal Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University’s (MMU) Department of Engineering and Technology, Faculty of Science and Engineering and responsible for the Profibus International Competence Centre at MMU.
The Tyco Competence Centre will support companies in new product development, provide technical support for Profibus manufacturers and users, allow demonstrations of interoperability of products and provide a comprehensive range of certified Profibus training programmes. The Centre’s support framework includes the availability of at least three Profibus experts, hardware equipment from various vendors and system test lab operations.
Tyco Flow Control Pacific will commence their Profibus training programme in December with an internationally accredited, certified one-day Profibus Installer course held in Sydney. The course will be suitable for engineers and technicians and will cover the layout, installation and testing of Profibus DP and PA networks. A 3.5-day certified Profibus Engineers course covering network design, commissioning and live fault finding will be scheduled for early 2009.