WirelessHART: Four for, one against

London - ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser and Siemens have issued a joint statement to highlight their " enthusiastic belief" in the WirelessHART standard, which was introduced to the market in September 2007. The standard, they said, is "the solution that will help customers enjoy the benefits of wireless today and for years to follow."

However, Honeywell has reiterated its previously stated concerns regarding WirelessHART, in a written statement to Process Engineering: "It is in the best interest of the industry to: 1. adopt a single, unified standard designed to facilitate communication for all fieldbus protocols, not just one; and 2. rally around a single, universal wireless network that supports a variety of protocols and has the ability to be flexible in the future.”  

WirelessHART has been defined a multi-vendor, interoperable wireless standard to meet the requirements of process field device networks. The standard was initiated in early 2004 and developed by 37 HART Communications Foundation (HCF) companies. 

According to the four supporting vendors, companies comprising the HCF represent over 90% of the field devices and control systems sold in the industry today. The HCF technology, they noted, is also available for license to non-members, while the ISA has been offered an unrestricted, royalty-free copyright license, allowing the ISA100 committee access to the WirelessHART standard.

"The HCF team which developed this interoperable, multi-vendor standard took great effort to ensure it would provide a solid platform for the future," said the joint statement, which was signed by Sean Keeping of ABB; Mark Schumacher, Emerson; Frank Hils, Endress+Hauser; and Hans-Georg Kumpfmueller of Siemens.

They also went on to highlight how:

• The standard was designed and field proven for reliability, power consumption, security, expandability, and other factors against many use cases, including wireless based control
• Backward compatibility with the HART “user layer” allows transparent adaptation of HART compatible control systems and configuration tools to integrate new wireless networks and their devices, as well as continued use of configuration and system-integration work practices
• The Fieldbus Foundation, Profibus Nutzerorganisation and HCF have announced a wireless cooperation team to develop a specification for a common interface to a wireless gateway

"As automation suppliers, we have a responsibility to innovate and deliver technologies that help customers realise new levels of performance, while ensuring open, interoperable technology platforms," the vendors concluded. "This requires a dedicated focus on customer needs, and a spirit of collaboration to co-develop these ... technologies. Our customers expect no less. WirelessHART is just such a technology. We are all delivering WirelessHART products this year and fully expect other HART member companies to do the same."