The PROFIBUS Competence Centre (PCC) travelled down to Richards Bay in September to give two consecutive Troubleshooting and Maintenance courses at Mondi. This training was organised by Cube Technologies who has partnered with the PCC to facilitate Profibus Training in KwaZulu-Natal.
The course was well received with 15 new PROFIBSUS Installers becoming certified. The attendees had the opportunity to do some hands-on troubleshooting on the PCC’s training rigs. They are asked to identify and correct the faults on the rigs which are typical faults that one might find on a plant.
Some of these faults can be identified and corrected by visual inspection, which can only be done once you know what you are looking for – that is, by coming on training. Some faults you can only identify with the appropriate test tools, without which, they discovered, they would be shooting in the dark. Profibus test tools include the BC-600 from Softing, the NETTEST II from COMSOFT and the ProfiCore Ultra from PROCENTEC.
The training the PCC offers has to keep up-to-date with the latest technologies that are at the PROFIBUS user’s disposal. This is why ComBricks from PROCENTEC have been introduced to the troubleshooting section of this course. ComBricks allows for permanent remote monitoring of your PROFIBUS or PROFINET network and can be used as a modular repeater.
ComBricks can record messages from before and after an error occurs and email the appropriate personnel of an alarm or a potential problem. A user can log in through a web browser, potentially from home through a VPN monitor the network in real-time and advise on-site personnel on what to do. For those attendees who are on standby, this is a very appealing product! All of these devices and test tools are available from IDX.
Thank you to Dianne Williams from Cube Technologies for organising the training and to Sharmaine Dyman, the HR Coordinator for Training at Mondi who made sure that everything ran smoothly. We look forward to running training in Richards Bay soon again.
If you are in the Natal region and would like to attend a PROFIBUS Course and not have to travel to Johannesburg to do so, then Contact Dianne Williams at Cube Technologies on +27 31 764 6081 or visit their site at www.cubetech.co.za.
For training in Johannesburg or on-site training, then please feel free to contact the PCC on +27 11 548 9977 or visit www.profibuscentre.co.za.
