Gateway Gives Control Room Operators Access to Networked Devices
Oct. 8, 2014
With Softing’s Ethernet-to- PROFIBUS gateway TH LINK PROFIBUS and the matching Communication and Device DTMs, maintenance engineers get central access to all PROFIBUS and HART devices in a system directly from the control room. This keeps maintenance expenses low and makes commissioning much easier.
TH LINK PROFIBUS enables remote access to all HART devices connected to the bus via all major asset management software solutions supporting FDT, such as FieldMate (Yokogawa), Field Care (Endress + Hauser), SmartVision (ABB), Field Device Manager (Honeywell) or PACTware.
Even though it has minimal space requirements, the gateway can be used for a variety of maintenance tasks. During operation, field device parameters can be configured centrally from the control room, saving costs by avoiding long distance walks in the plant. In combination with any FDT (Field Device Tool) Frame Application, the entire system or individual devices can be tested easily by loop check during commissioning.
Thanks to integrated PROFIBUS diagnostics, maintenance engineers are aware of the “health” of the bus at any time helping to prevent plant downtimes in case of communication failures.
