One stop and all your fieldbus questions will be answered
15 Jan 2000
A consortium of Fieldbus Foundation (enter 320 on enquiry card) members are featured in the Field Communications Pavilion at this year's show on stand E250. The Foundation has designed the Pavilion as a single point reference for leading field communications protocols.
Participating companies are led by Profibus (321), on stand E255, offering complimentary copies of the Profibus book, and the latest Profinews, together with a demonstration of the latest version of the Electronic Product Guide (EPG). The EPG contains a full technical overview of Profibus, including the high speed (12mbaud) Profibus-DP.
Elsewhere in the pavilion AS-Interface UK (322) is launching its multi-vendor demonstrator (MVD) system, which features products from all AS-Interface UK members, interoperating on a single AS-Interface network.
Other UK participating companies on the ASi stand include Baumer Electric, Brad Harrison, Compair Maxam, Crouzet, Eurotherm Process Control, Group Schneider, Richard Hirschmann Electronics, ifm Electronic, IMI Norgen, Lumberg UK, Mannesmann Rexroth, MultiSwitch Baluff, Siemens and Ralcom.
In addition to its range of level controls and encoders on stand C90, Pepperl + Fuchs (323) is also showcasing the Remote Process Interface (RPI). This is said to remove the need for DCS/PLC I/O cards and reduce wiring, cabinet space and documentation, with a proven cost-saving of 25 per cent against conventional installation.
Based on the ISIbus system, which collects information from and provides power to field-mounted HART devices, the HART distributed multiplexer, from Fieldbus International (FINT) (324), is designed to allow installation and live maintenance in hazardous environments and areas. It is upgradable to Profibus and Foundation fieldbuses. HART devices are connected to the bus in the field, minimising cable requirements. Inductive connection to the bus allows both spark-free and robust connection. The multiplexer system is said to be suitable for the process industry in general and hazardous environments in particular.
Elsewhere, DeviceNet and ControlNet protocols are combined on stand C180, where Warwick Manufacturing (325) and many ODVA and ControlNet International vendors are demonstrating DeviceNet product alongside a fully functional, multi-vendor DeviceNet test board available from the DeviceNet Laboratories.
DeviceNet is an open low-cost communications link to connect industrial devices to a network and eliminate expensive wiring. ControlNet meets the demands for real-time, high-speed comms that are outside the needs served by Ethernet and DeviceNet.
