Foundation fieldbus at heart of in-field control

Since its launch by Fisher-Rosemount in 1996, the company's PlantWeb field-based control architecture has gradually been spreading its tentacles across the process industries. But now with last month's UK launch of PlantWeb Builder, focused firmly on the Foundation fieldbus, F-R hopes to accelerate the rate of uptake.

Applications of PlantWeb to date have been site-specific, each taking advantage of specific parts of the architecture (see PE Jul/Aug 1998, p20) such as the intelligent field devices, asset management functionality, or the reduced installation and cabling costs. What PlantWeb Builder does is to now offer all the major components needed to build a Foundation fieldbus implementation of PlantWeb.

Depending on customer requirements, the Builder can include the DeltaV scaleable process control system; AMS (asset management solutions) functionality; F-R's Models 3051 pressure and 3244 temperature transmitters, 8800 vortex meters, 5300 MicroMotion Coriolis flowmeters, 4081 pH transmitters, 4000 oxygen analysers, and DVC 5000f digital valve controllers - all linked together using Foundation fieldbus.