NAMUR (www.namur.de), an international users association of companies in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry, confirmed via an official report that the HART Communication Foundation’s (www.hartcomm.org) WirelessHART technology meets the requirements for wireless sensor networks in process applications. After conducting a multi-vendor field test, NAMUR said WirelessHART Communication provides the flexibility, security, performance, coexistence with other radio technologies, and device interoperability within a WirelessHART network that its members should expect.
The NAMUR field test used WirelessHART products from ABB, Emerson Process Management, Endress+Hauser, MACTek, Pepperl+Fuchs, and Siemens to evaluate and verify WirelessHART compliance with NAMUR Recommendation NE124, “Requirements for Wireless Automation” and NAMUR Working Document NA115, "IT Security for Process Automation Systems". The field test conducted at the BASF facility in Ludwigshafen, Germany, included laboratory evaluation of performance characteristics and several implementations in operating process plant environments.
NAMUR represents approximately 15,000 PCS experts, of whom approximately 300 are active in 33 working groups covering the fields of measurement and control, automation, communication, process control and electrical engineering over the entire lifecycle of systems.
The WirelessHART standard is an evolutionary enhancement to the HART Communication Protocol, a communication technology for intelligent process measurement and control field devices and systems with more than 30 million devices installed worldwide. The WirelessHART technology is backward compatible with currently installed HART devices, is supported by existing HART tools, and provides additional capabilities to access asset management information in both existing and new monitoring and control applications.
The HART Communication Foundation is an international, not-for-profit, membership organization supported by more than 230 companies worldwide. Founded in 1993, the foundation is the technology owner, standards setting body and central authority on the HART Protocol and provides global support for application of the HART technology.
