New industry organisation to be created

The Boards of Directors for the Fieldbus Foundation and the HART^® Communication Foundation have announced that they have approved unifying the two Foundations into a new industry organisation dedicated to the needsof intelligent devices and their integration into the process automation industry.

The combined power of both organisation will be used to protect the investments that end users have made in HART and FOUNDATION^TM fieldbus communications technologies. The mission of the combined organisation will be to develop, manage, and promote global standards for integrating devices into automation system architectures, providing functional solutions for process automation suppliers and end users. Supplier swill also profit from the increased efficiencies in resource utilisation, procedure consistency, and member service and support improvements.

The FOUNDATION fieldbus and HART specifications will continue to exist individually. Each protocol will retain its own brandname, trademarks, patents and copyrights.

The new organisation will continue to develop, support, and promote the two existing protocols and will direct the development, incorporation and implementation of new and overlapping technologies. The new organisation will eventually serve as the single source for foreign direct investment, the sole integration tool for HART and FOUNDATION fieldbus technologies.

The name of the proposed organisation is not yet finalised. The next step will be to complete the membership ballot by the end of summer 2014. Following a successful membership vote, legal filings for the creation of a new not for profit entity will take place in September 2014.

Adapted from a press release by Emma McAleavey.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/gas-processing/25072014/new-industry-organisation-1002/