Field devices target one-tool-for-all concept

Martin Ward, managing director of Yokogawa UK Ltd, highlights how new field devices can be linked with asset management techniques to make users’ plant asset conditions more predictable and sustainable:

As field devices become more intelligent and the trend to digital field communications moves forward, there is a growing demand for systems to manage the configuration and maintenance of these devices. The growing number of device configuration parameters, meanwhile, complicates the initial configuration and the daily maintenance of devices in process plants.

With the current variety of communication protocols and configuration methods in use today, users of field devices from multiple manufacturers have to use different procedures to carry out this type of configuration.

These challenges can now been addressed with the introduction of the latest portable field device engineering and maintenance software systems. This technology is designed to greatly help the configuration and maintenance of intelligent field devices at a cost much lower than that of alternative hardware solutions.

The ‘one-tool-for-all’ concept can save users a lot of time and pain associated with using many dedicated hardware configuration devices. By supporting asset management capabilities via EDDL (electronic device description language) technologies, the latest software combines the best benefits of intelligent field devices and digital field communications.

Yokogawa, for instance, now offers FieldMate Advance, which uses open interface Field Device Tool (FDT) technology to facilitate the configuration and adjustment of field devices such as sensors and valves at production sites, regardless of the manufacturer or the communication protocols.

FDT is an open and standard interface technology supported by leading suppliers of intelligent devices and control systems. The technology facilitates the management and configuration of sensors that are installed at production sites and connected to host control systems and PCs, regardless of the communications protocol — Foundation Fieldbus, HART, and PROFIBUS, for example — or the configuration method used by the device manufacturer.

The use of this technology creates an open environment in control systems and devices. The FDT technology frees users from having to learn configuration methods from different manufacturers and eliminates the constraint of having to install devices from the same manufacturer, allowing more efficient plant operations to be realised.