Fieldbus Foundation 2007 General Assembly Sponsored by Smar International

The Annual Foundation technology event themed “Changing the Playing Field” was sponsored by Smar International.

Fieldbus Foundation President and CEO Richard Timoney during the 2007 GA-FF opening
 

The Fieldbus Foundation - 2007 General Assembly was held in Houston, Texas, this past February at the Houstonian Hotel. The event was attended by Foundation technology suppliers, end users and important industry participants from around the world. The theme of this year’s General Assembly, “Changing the Playing Field,” reflected the Fieldbus Foundation’s emphasis on providing a total control system technology infrastructure for industrial manufacturing. The event addressed key topics such as distributed control; business intelligence; and open, scalable integration, followed by an overview of current Fieldbus Foundation developments worldwide.

The morning program included workshops geared for Fieldbus Foundation system end users, engineers and suppliers. End user presentations described fieldbus installations in a wide range of process industry applications. For the complete event presentations overview, please visit: http://www.fieldbus.org

An outstanding reference to Smar in the nuclear industry was given by Mr. Mike Miller from Duke Energy while presenting his end-user’s paper “A Nuclear Perspective on a Foundation fieldbus Application”. He stated “Smar International was selected as a vendor due to superior Fieldbus capabilities and ability to meet plant specific customizing solutions in the Nuclear Industry”. During his presentation, he credits all the vendors involved with the success of this nuclear project.

Fieldbus Foundation General Assembly Presentation Overview – Houstonian Hotel – Houston, Texas – USA
 

Presentation overview: http://www.fieldbus.org/ index.php?option=com_co ntent&task=view&id=269& Itemid=259.

End users also shared their experiences implementing Foundation technology with Control Engineering Magazine. http://www. fieldbus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=vie w&id=327&Itemid=283.

Smar was also mentioned by Mr. Tim Haley of Corning Inc. in his “Open Scaleable Integration” workshop. Smar installed Corning’s fieldbus system in the mid 90s in its pollution abatement and raw material plants. This system has been crucial to the safety of personnel and plant profitability. Coning Inc. is the largest supplier of fiber optics in the world and has the state-of-the-art fieldbus technology implemented in this plant.

 

Adding even more value to the Fieldbus Foundation GA 2007 program, Smar introduced its new series of controllers with High Speed Ethernet I/O (HSE-RIO) connection capability. The System302 provides the backbone of the network for complete supervision and horizontal plant control.

Unique to System302-Studio is the option to select the network connection of your choice (Foundation fieldbus, Profibus, DeviceNet, and AS-i). Additionally, all controllers can access conventional signals from a variety of discrete and analog I/O cards, and include a Modbus connection for legacy equipment integration. Other capabilities include Function Block Programming and Ladder Logic via FFB (Flexible Function Block and EDDL).

Libanio Souza – Smar R&D Director during a System302 – FAQ participation

“The open, scalable solution was designed to protect installed assets and co-exist with legacy systems”, adds Libanio Souza Smar R&D Director.

“System302-Studio is the “all-in-one” structure that supports the use of many different technologies in a single, integrated and transparent environment for engineering, operation and maintenance of a plant” says Libanio Souza, during his Seminar FAQ’s overview.

Smar has been recognized as the “First in Fieldbus” and has pioneered many of today’s advanced digital field instrument and control network technologies. This is consolidated in a broad product based offering in the industry-standard HART, Foundation fieldbus and Profibus protocols.

Smar’s powerful, fieldbus-based System302 has gained prominence as a “best-in-class” industrial automation solution in installations around the world. “It is the energetic commitment of Smar and its associates to provide state-of-the-art technology to the industry and is definitely a winwin situation for users seeking significant evolution in the fieldbus arena”, concludes Joe Rondan – President and CEO of Smar International Corp., Houston, Texas.

Smar Houston associates participation: David Koeberle – R&D, Joe Rondan – President&CEO, Ernani Verissimo – R&D, Bill Colaianni – Inside Sales Manager, Gaetan Cloutier – Regional Manager

In conjunction with Fieldbus Foundation, Smar will be participating in a series of events where end users and engineering firms are encouraged to attend ongoing educational seminars to learn more about “Changing the Playing Field” with the Foundation System Technology. http://www.fieldbus.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=91&Itemid=259. The events format will be in one-day seminars encompassing the fieldbus infrastructure with demonstrations including: Open Scalable Integration, Process Integrity and Business Intelligence. Local end users and speakers will be present in the afternoon to discuss their experiences with the technology.