Austin, TX, Sept. 24, 2003 -- HART® Communication Foundation Executive Director Ron Helson announced that the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) in Detroit, Mich., has been selected as the HART Plant of the Year for 2003. The award is given annually to recognize success in the innovative use of HART Communication technology in real-time process applications.
"We congratulate Detroit Water and Sewerage for unleashing the power of their HART-enabled devices to achieve real-time operational improvements," says Helson. "Their innovative use of HART-enabled plant instrumentation serves as a powerful model for industry users worldwide...a working illustration of how to realize far greater benefits from HART than ever before."
DWSD uses the power of HART Communication in daily operations to eliminate metering disputes, improve system reliability, and streamline operations.
"We determined that HART would provide the best solution for several reasons. HART minimized the additional investment we had to make, since most of the existing instrumentation was HART-capable and could use existing wiring," says DWSD Head Engineer Dennis Green.
"HART is a stable protocol posing a low compatibility risk for planned expansions. And, HART allowed us to digitally extract secondary variables and diagnostic information, while the intelligence built into the HART instruments enabled them to perform calculations, freeing computing power in higher-level platforms for other tasks." Green says.
HART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) technology is the globally accepted standard and most widely used digital communication protocol for industrial process and manufacturing operations. Well over two-thirds of all smart instruments communicate using HART and more than 12 million HART-capable devices are installed worldwide.
"Automation suppliers are now delivering HART-enabled system solutions that leverage the intelligence in HART-smart devices for real-time advanced device diagnostics and process information," says Helson. "Real-time connections are the key to unleashing the power of installed HART devices to improve plant operations, increase system availability, lower maintenance costs and aid regulatory compliance."
Other networking technologies have matured considerably since 1996, when DWSD began piloting its system. Nevertheless, Green says that he would still use HART, even if the project were beginning today.
"I know these newer fieldbus technologies are the hot thing right now, but it could have cost us twice as much money," Green says. "HART does the job for us, and it's done on our standard equipment that was already installed - you don't pay extra for it. It certainly was ideal for what we wanted to do."
DWSD developed and implemented an extensive Automatic Meter Reading / Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (AMR/SCADA) system, a $10 million piece of a major infrastructure upgrade project that relies on the power of HART Communication to deliver consistent, reliable data on system performance. DWSD integrated a vast array of diverse field devices and technologies onto a single networked system to take full advantage of HART's digital communication capabilities.
Cebrace Cristal Plano Ltda, a plate and specialty glass manufacturer in Sao Paulo, Brazil, was selected as a 2003 HART Plant of the Year finalist. Both companies will be recognized at the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (ISA EXPO 2003) trade show in Houston, Texas, October 21.
About HART Communication
Since 1990, the HART Field Communications Protocol has served as the world's leading communication technology for smart process instruments. With a portfolio of more than 500 products from 150 companies and a global installed base of more than 12 million HART-capable devices, HART Communication is the field-proven and accepted global standard. As the industry expands its use of this well-established technology, end users and suppliers are realizing that HART is the most cost-effective, easy-to-use and low risk process communication solution available today.
About the Foundation
The HART Communication Foundation, an independent not-for-profit organization, is the owner and standards setting body for the HART Protocol. Established in 1993, the Foundation provides worldwide support for application of the HART Protocol and ensures that the technology is openly available for the benefit of the industry. The Foundation, which celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year, is supported by the world's leading process automation suppliers and has offices in Austin, Texas, and Basel, Switzerland.
For information on HART Communication technology, HART-capable products, or the Foundation, go to www.hartcomm.org.
