Teledyne DALSA, a Teledyne Technologies company and a global leader in machine vision technology, announced that their BOA Smart Cameras now support PROFINET IO, a high-level network for industrial automation applications. Built using standard Ethernet technologies, PROFINET IO defines a network structure for exchanging data, alarms and diagnostics with Programmable Controllers and other automation controllers on the factory floor. PROFINET IO is a widely used open standard supported by “PROFIBUS and PROFINET International”, the largest automation community in the world.

“We are pleased to add PROFINET IO to the list of factory protocols supported by our BOA Smart Cameras,” said Steve Geraghty, Director of Teledyne DALSA’s Industrial Products. “Compliance with this standard is closely monitored to ensure fast, secure and reliable data exchange between BOA and any PROFINET compatible device.”

The Teledyne DALSA BOA smart camera is a highly integrated optical inspection tool for controlling quality and increasing productivity. It comprises all the elements of an industrial machine vision system in a tiny smart camera style package. BOA smart cameras offer scalable vision solutions to satisfy a wide range of application needs from positioning robotic handlers to complete assembly verifications. BOA is fully loaded with iNspect Express, a comprehensive set of click and apply tools to satisfy a wide range of optical automation tasks.

In the PROFINET world, the BOA Smart Camera is classified as an IO-Device described by a GSD (Generic Station Description) file, The GSD file provides the IO-Controller with a basis for planning the configuration of a PROFINET IO system and the defined IO modules in BOA are available for use by the control program. Configuring BOA for PROFINET is a simple matter of selecting if from a drop-down list of supported communication protocols in the iNspect Express user interface.