FieldComm Group announces agreements in support of Field Device Integration technology

June 22, 2016  – FieldComm Group announces a series of major agreements, contracts, standards and events to accelerate global adoption of FDI (Field Device Integration) technology. These activities align with FieldComm Group’s mission to drive adoption of FDI technology to become the global standard for field device integration, independent of underlying device protocols.  Included in today’s announcement are:

• Completion of a contract between co-owners FieldComm Group and the PROFIBUS & PROFINET International organization to manage the IP rights, roadmap and distribution of FDI technology, tools and host components.
• Completion of a contract between FDI technology partners FieldComm Group, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, the OPC Foundation and the FDT Group to govern the process of FDI specification enhancement and leverage FieldComm Group’s Integration Working Group as the venue of collaboration for all FDI partners.
• Completion of a Memorandum of Understanding between the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) and FieldComm Group that enables WCI representatives to engage in technology discussions in the Integration Working Group to incorporate ISA100 Wireless support into FDI technology.
• Approval of the FDI technology standard in Plenary SC65E / “Device and Integration in enterprise systems” by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and
• Endorsement of FDI technology by NAMUR, an international user association of automation technology in process industries, in their WG 2.6 Fieldbus Position Paper “Requirements on an Ethernet Communication System for the Process Industry”.

“This ground-breaking body of work enables the immediate adoption of FDI technology by the automation industry,” says Ted Masters, President and CEO of FieldComm Group. “We are excited with the response this technology has received by leading automation instrumentation and host system providers.  All of the major host system suppliers and instrument vendors representing nearly 80% of worldwide field instrument supply have licensed technology development kits for FDI. This activity and support provides confidence to end users that FDI technology will be supported worldwide.”
 
Karsten Schneider, Chairman of PROFIBUS & PROFINET International confirms the importance of communications – not just in bits and bytes, but person-to-person and organization-to-organization: "The FDI project is a prime example of how users, manufacturers, and user organizations can trustfully and successfully communicate and cooperate. FDI will significantly simplify the integration task in process industries. And this cooperation will become even more relevant in the context of Industrie 4.0."
 
FieldComm Group, as the prime standards development organization for FDI technology, is planning a series of events to educate the market on FDI technologyfor the remainder of 2016 including:

• FDI User and Supplier Webinars
• FDI Training Workshops for Developers
• FCG End User Group and General Assembly to host a live demonstration of FDI technology including workshops and “Ask the Experts” session