The Fieldbus Foundation celebrated its 10th birthday at its annual business meeting in New Orleans, Feb 18-19. Foundation chairman John Berra, who is also president of Emerson Process Management, Austin, Texas, cited global cooperation of suppliers and users as the primary key to success. A meeting on Sept. 23, 1994, led to the development efforts of a digital communication standard for process instrumentation, culminating in a field trial of Foundation Fieldbus in 1996. Acceptance has grown since then, to the point where the number of registered devices increased by 28 percent to 176 unique devices in 2003.
Berra also cited the strong leadership of retired chief executive John Pittman and current chief executive Rich Timoney, an involved board, voluntary labor of many technical people and active end users councils overlaid with persistence and passion that contributed to the success of this fieldbus.
Timoney pointed out that there is still growth projected for the future with TüV approval of the FF safety integrated system concept and cooperative work with the HART Foundation and Profibus Trade Organization to achieve interoperable networks.
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