The HART 7 Specification is officially announced, enabling many new capabilities for communication with intelligent field devices including Wireless HART, the first open wireless communication standard specifically designed for process measurement and control applications.
The HART Communication Foundation membership approved the HART 7 Specifications in June 2007, following an extensive review and approval process. The HCF Board of Directors has authorized release of this new standard.
“With official release of the HART 7 Specifications, the Wireless HART standard is now publicly available and manufacturers can begin implementing this new capability into their products and process solutions. I expect that products complying with this new standard will be available from multiple manufacturers in early 2008,” says HCF Executive Director Ron Helson.
Wireless HART 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, preserving the investment in HART-enabled devices, tools, training, applications and work procedures used today.
“Wireless HART provides the same experience that users know and expect from HART-enabled products, protecting the global installed base of 24+ million HART devices,” says Helson.
Wireless HART communication builds on established and field-proven international standards including the HART protocol (IEC 61158), EDDL (IEC 61804-3), IEEE 802.15.4 radio and frequency hopping, spread spectrum and mesh networking technologies.
The new technology addresses the issues users face in the process plant environment and seamlessly integrates existing devices into HART-enabled systems.
Wireless HART technology was developed from user input through the combined, cooperative efforts of HCF member companies and leaders in wireless technology, including ABB, Adaptive Instruments, Crossbow Technology, Dust Networks, ELPRO Technologies, Emerson Process Management, Endress+Hauser, Flowserve, Honeywell, MACTek, MTL, Omnex Control Systems, Pepperl+Fuchs, Phoenix Contact, Siemens, Smar, Yamatake and Yokogawa.