Fieldbus Foundation Board and HART Communication Foundation to merge

The Fieldbus Foundation and the HART Communication Foundation have agreed to form a united industry organisation dedicated to the needs of intelligent devices and their integration in the world of process automation.

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. Suppliers will also profit from the increased efficiencies in resource utilisation, procedure consistency and member service and support improvements.

The Fieldbus Foundation and HART Communication Foundation have a long history of cooperation. The two worked together to develop common international standards, such as Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) specifications and Field Device Integration (FDI) technology. Combining the organisations offers significant potential for harmonising the procedures and efforts supporting the two protocols, as well as simplifying each technology’s implementation while better delivering their full benefits in plant operation and maintenance.

The Foundation fieldbus and HART specifications will continue to exist individually, and to evolve into the future. Each protocol will retain its own brand name, trademarks, patents and copyrights.

The new organisation will continue development, support and promotion of 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 FDI, the sole integration tool for HART and Foundation fieldbus technologies. The name of the proposed organisation is not yet finalised.

Following a successful membership vote, legal filings for the creation of a new not-for-profit entity will take place in September 2014. As a final step, it is expected that the new organisation offices will be consolidated and located near Austin, Texas, in early 2015.