The first IO-Link test center is to be established in the Hefei National High-Tech Industry Development Zone – located in Hefei, capital city of East China's Anhui province.

An IO-Link is an international short distance, bi-directional, digital, point-to-point, wired (or wireless), industrial communications networking standard. It is primarily used to communicate with sensors and actuators in plant or factory automation processes.

In 2006, German tech giant Siemens – together with 14 multinational companies in the field of industrial automation – founded the IO-Link Association. The aim was to solve the problem of flexible manufacturing in industrial production, by adding a communications interface to industrial sensors and actuators.

Hefei Onsoon Intelligent Electronics Co, a high-tech enterprise based in the Hefei zone, passed all the audits conducted by the IO-Link Association on March 29 and was awarded a certification for its laboratory to conduct tests.

Hefei Onsoon Intelligent Electronics Co passes audits run by the IO-Link Association on March 29. [Photo/WeChat ID: hefeigaoxinfabu]

With the successful certification, Hefei Onsoon Intelligent Electronics became the first operator of a test laboratory outside Germany and the third IO-Link testing laboratory in the world.

Before becoming a test center, the company was certified as an IO -Link capacity center in November 2019, the first such center in China.

Since then, Onsoon Intelligent has become a company that has obtained dual certification for an IO-Link capacity center and a test center.

It's followed in the footsteps of TEConcept and TMG in Germany, making  it an important participant and promoter of IO-Link technology.

As a result, domestic manufacturers are now expected to not only save costs, but also become more efficient in conducting IO-Link testing. This is seen as achieving faster sales of domestic products in the global market.