Honeywell joins field device tool group

By Control Engineering Staff October 18, 2005

Phoenix, AZHoneywell has joined the Field Device Tool (FDT) Group , a collaboration of international automation companies that supports advancement of FDT and Device Tool Management (DTM) technology.

Honeywell expects to use the open technology of DTM to improve support for its own and other suppliers’ devices. Expanding device connectivity and integration with Honeywell’s Experion Process Knowledge System is intended to help users reduce maintenance costs and improve process uptime with the company’s asset-management and automation offerings.

“Honeywell is investing in technology and open standards that provide the market with a wide range of choices when interconnecting devices and subsystems with automation solutions,” said Paul Butler, Honeywell Process Solutions vice president of technology.

He noted that joining the FDT Group reflects the company’s support for technologies based on open-systems standards that benefit the end-user community, adding that Honeywell “remains firmly committed to its investments in DDL technology for HART and FOUNDATION Fieldbus. FDT technology is complementary to DDL technology and holds promise in other areas, specifically around the support of configuration and diagnostics for more sophisticated subsystems, especially in the discrete and hybrid industries. The new FDT Group organizational structure makes it much easier for companies to collaborate on this open technology,” Butler said.

—Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, jkatzel@reedbusiness.com