On October 10-11, 2023, Onsoon was invited to participate in the 2023 IO-Link Technology Interoperability Conference held in Bad Soden, Germany. The company participated for the first time as the only IO-Link test center in Asia. 49 companies from 13 countries around the world participated in the conference, including giants in the automation field such as Balluff, Beckhoff, Pepperl+Fuchs, and Omron. The number of participants was as many as 130, setting a new record for the number of participants. Onsoon sent three senior engineers, carrying Master protocol testing tools, Master performance testing tools, Device protocol testing tools to attend this meeting.

On the morning of October 10, Frank Moritz, head of the technical group and testing group of the IO-Link committee, made an opening speech. In addition to introducing new products and developments, he also gave an introduction to product testing in terms of quality, interoperability and application. In addition to discussing the seamless connection between IO-Link and OT, the integration of IO-Link and IT was also discussed. In addition, interoperability workshops are increasingly becoming information hubs and cross-vendor platforms. Through interoperation, possible errors or inconsistencies are detected and ideally even fixed directly on site. "The dialogue between users and experts always generates new ideas, leading to the extension of the technology and the evaluation of further areas of application," says Frank Moritz. This year, many new developments around IO-Link Wireless aroused great interest among the attendees, especially the interaction between classic (i.e. IO-Link wired) and IO-Link wireless. In the following time, various participating companies conducted orderly interactions, and Onsoon and the other two test centers were divided into one area. Many companies came to Onsoon's work station for testing and technical exchanges, including companies such as Hans Turck, Hilscher, P+F, Murr, IQ2 and TI. In response to the problems discovered during product testing, engineers from both parties conducted detailed exchanges, and engineers from Onsoon Headquarters also provided remote support. Through interoperation, we not only discovered some problems with the tool itself, but also discovered some flaws in the customer's product design, but most of the problems were solved on site.

The 2023 interoperability event has ended. The two-day schedule was tight and orderly, and the participating engineers showed great enthusiasm. During the meeting, Frank Moritz consulted in detail about the 8-port Master Tester Tool developed by Onsoon and gave a high evaluation. Through the activities, everyone tested their respective products, discussed new application scenarios of IO-Link technology, and enhanced mutual understanding. IO-Link interoperability is increasingly becoming an important event on the calendar of IO-Link manufacturers.

The 2024 Interoperability Workshop will be held in Bad Soden from October 1 to 2, 2024. We look forward to meeting more and more new users and participants at next year's conference.

Quick Fact: IO-Link is a globally standardized two-way communication technology (IEC 61131-9) for industrial sensors and actuators. The biggest advantage: Even the simplest sensors and actuators can be easily integrated into any fieldbus system. IO-Link is the fastest growing technology in industrial automation. There are more than 22,000 types of IO-Link products developed by various companies, and more than 36 million nodes have been installed around the world. The goal of IO-Link technology interoperability is to test the compatibility between IO-Link Masters and Devices in a real environment and ensure that the Masters and Devices work together without any problems. This allows potential errors or inconsistencies to be identified and, ideally, resolved on the spot.