Emerson claims WirelessHART first

Southampton, UK - Emerson Process Management said it has become the first process automation supplier to begin taking orders for WirelessHART-enabled products, based on the recently approved open wireless communications standard  for process measurement and control applications. The products are being offered as part of its Smart Wireless range  of pressure, flow, level, temperature, and vibration transmitters and gateways, as well as its AMS Suite predictive maintenance software and 375 field communicator.

"Emerson customers have proved [the benefits of wireless technology] with installations of our pre-standard products, said John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management in a 17 March anouncement. "The WirelessHART standard opens the door to confident and broad implementation of wireless throughout the industry ... Wireless simply means a better way to put more eyes and ears in the plant, to enable the plant to run better, safer, and greener.”

Since the official release of the HART 7 specifications in September 2007, the WirelessHART standard has been publicly available for implementation into process devices and systems, said HART Communications Foundation executive director Ron Helson. “The WirelessHART technology addresses the critical needs of the process industry for simple, reliable and secure wireless communication in the real world industrial plant environment. It is easy to use, easy to deploy, and fully backward compatible with existing instrumentation and host systems.”

According to Emerson,  the demand for wireless technology will exceed Euro1.5 billion by 2012. Market growth, it said, will be supported by a continuous stream of new WirelessHART products, including pH transmitters, discrete transmitters, valve position transmitters as well as its Smart Wireless THUM Communicator to delivery stranded diagnostics from legacy devices, and DeltaV native wireless interface.