Integration of industrial automation equipment in experiment control systems via PROFIBUS-developments and experiences at Forschungszentrum Julich

PROFIBUS, being a national German (DIN 19245) and an European (EN 50170) standard, has become the most widely accepted modern fieldbus technology in Europe. It is expected to take a similar role on the world market, since the IEC standardisation efforts for a common international fieldbus failed recently. A major reason for its success is the technological and functional scalability based on a common core. Now, a wide range of PLCs as well as low cost process I/O is available (also from leading manufacturers like Siemens) which enable easy interfacing. ZEL, the central electronics facility of Forschungszentrum Julich, has decided to use predominantly industrial components (PLCs, I/Os, etc.) in the front end of slow control systems for physics experiments