Increased openness and accessibility brought to SPS Italia 2017

CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) is expecting considerable interest in its stand (hall 6, stand F012) following the launch of its CC-Link IE Field Basic open Ethernet and the delivery of the interoperability specification between CC-Link IE and PROFINET, which has underlined the association's commitment to openness, accessibility and connectivity.

SPS Italia 2017 has revised the exhibitor layout to accommodate the increase in visitor and exhibitor numbers year on year. The West entrance into hall 6 enables the flow of visitors to be more balanced and is also close to CLPA’s stand, which will be right next to key CLPA partner Mitsubishi Electric’s stand (hall 6 - stand D014-E014).

CC-Link IE Field Basic (IEFB) is the latest addition to the family of CLPA open automation network technologies. CC-Link IE is acknowledged in the industry as being a technology leader by virtue of its gigabit bandwidth. CC-Link IEFB now brings CC-Link IE to 100Mbit devices, and is achieved via implementing only software at both master and device level, without hardware changes. The principal aim of the new technology is to greatly increase the accessibility of CC-Link IE to vendors whose devices don’t currently support gigabit connections.

The recently released joint interoperability specification for the CLPA’s CC-Link IE and PROFIBUS and PROFINET International’s PROFINET is another hot topic. The cooperation between the two most prevalent networking protocols in Asia and Europe respectively is offering end users and machine builders increased ease of integration, enabling reduced total cost of ownership and increased transparency.

John Browett, General Manager at CLPA Europe, commented: "The expected attendance at SPS Italia 2017 is looking very positive. CLPA will be delivering on promises of increased accessibility and openness, which our end users have demanded. We are privileged to now be in a position to deliver additional accessibility and increased transparency between network protocols for the ultimate ease of use."