I/O components

Safe and low-cost operation of infrastructures in large, but also in small, buildings nowadays requires that the most important operational functions such as system control, air-conditioning and lighting are running automatically. However, this also makes higher demands on the functions of the building installation, which can usually be met by conventional technology only with large expenditures. This is why building automation is increasingly using Ethernet compatible bus systems, which execute the transmission of information between sensors and actuators, switches and higher-ranking control systems.

These bus systems offer different advantages like an ease of planning and installing of building functions and a strong flexibility in the use of buildings since functions can be programmed freely and can thus be re-configured at any time.

Thanks to the availability of microcontrollers and to the reduction of the sizes and prices of the installed electronic components, automation has now also found its way into areas, which due to the implied costs were not suited for field bus solutions before. In particular in the linking of sensors, actuators and control units within machines and of devices used for measuring, control and monitoring systems, serial bus systems offer strong advantages.