Fieldbus and HART bodies plot merger
26 Sep 2013
The Fieldbus Foundation and the HART Communication Foundation announced yesterday that they have begun talks on the potential merging their two organisations.
A merger of the trade and standards bodies is being considered in order to create a single industry foundation “dedicated to the needs of intelligent device communications in the world of process automation”.
“We believe combining the resources and capabilities of each foundation into a single organisation will provide significant benefits to both end users and suppliers,” said the chairmen of the two organisations - Dr. Gunther Kegel of the Fieldbus Foundation and Mr. Mark Schumacher of the HART Communication Foundation - in a joint statement.
For members of the organisations these benefits are likely to include, according to documents released with the merger announcement, “increased efficiencies and reduced total costs as more and more standards, processes and procedures are harmonised”.
Today’s decision provides momentum for a major step forward in the evolution of intelligent devices and the world of industrial communications
Richard J. Timoney and Ted Masters
The Fieldbus Foundation and HART Communication Foundation have worked extensively together in the past. For example, the two organisations worked together on the development of common international standards such as Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) and, most recently, the development of the Field Device Integration (FDI) specification.
The merger offers significant potential to harmonise many aspects of the two protocols, making it easier for end users and suppliers to implement the technology and obtain the full benefits of each technology in plant operations and maintenance.
In preliminary discussions, the presidents of the two organisations, Richard J. Timoney of the Fieldbus Foundation and Ted Masters of the HART Communication Foundation, added that many synergies already existed: “We are both confident that today’s decision to investigate the merger of these two organizations provides momentum for a major step forward in the evolution of intelligent devices and the world of industrial communications.”
