7 October 2009

HART sitting on top of the process world

"We're the largest installed process industry communication protocol in the world, and we continue to grow," said Ron Helson, executive director for HART Communication Foundation (HCF) during a Tuesday press conference at the Reliant Center.

Helson gave an update on the status of HART (http://www.hartcomm.org/).

“The percentages breakout as 44% HART, 32% 4-20 mA analog only, 11% proprietary, 10% pneumatic, and 3% fieldbus. These are for the 64.9 million devices installed in process industry applications in 2008. They are the latest figures,” he said.

WirelessHART technology provides a robust wireless protocol for the full range of process measurement, control, and asset management applications.

It sits on the HART Communication Protocol WirelessHART and enables users to quickly and easily gain the benefits of wireless technology while maintaining compatibility with existing devices, tools, and systems.
More specifically, HART is a bi-directional communication protocol that provides data access between intelligent field instruments and host systems. A host can be any software application from technician’s handheld device or laptop to a plant’s process control, asset management, safety or other system using any control platform.