LAYING THE FOUNDATION – BUILDING FIELDBUS SYSTEMS THAT DELIVER BENEFITS

Abstract: FOUNDATION ™ Fieldbus technology has now grown well beyond the initial development and commercialisation phase and is fast becoming an accepted element of process control projects. Fieldbus offers many benefits and advantages to the user. However, it requires not only an understanding of the technology but some differences in thinking about how to implement projects. Issues range from wiring practices, control in field devices and power distribution to project scheduling and plant personnel capabilities. This paper deals with the changes to process planning, documentation, and installation, and with the tools that can simplify and hide the complexities of networking devices in highly distributed control and monitoring environments to deliver real benefits to users