FDI Cooperation

Press Release Karlsruhe, September26, 2011

FDI Cooperation, LLC:A New Company for a Single Common Integration Technology is founded

FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International and OPC Foundation founded acompanytoestablishan organization tomanagea common single solution for device integration (FDI).

Karlsruhe, Germany (September26, 2011) – The five major automation foundations FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, and OPC Foundation have developedasingle common solution for Field Device Integration (FDI). These foundations decided to combine their efforts and form a joint company. The new company is named FDI Cooperation, LLC (a limited liability company under US law).This was made formal by all representatives signing the contract documents in Karlsruhe today.The FDI Cooperation,LLC will be headed by a “Board of Managers”, which is composed of the representatives of the involved organizations, as well as managers of global automation suppliers including ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Invensys, Siemens, and Yokogawa. Hans-Georg Kumpfmüller of Siemens will serve as chairman of the board.Achim Laubenstein of ABB has been nominated as executive director.

The purpose of the organization is:

  • To complete the standardization of FDI under the IEC (International Electrical Commission)
  • Managing the FDI Specification
  • Finalizingthe FDI tool kitsfor system and device manufacturers

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FDI Cooperation, LLCoriginated from efforts at the EDDL Cooperation Team (ECT) to accelerate deployment of the FDI solution, which was kicked-off at 2007 Hanover Fair. Since then, the project has carefully shaped the technology direction for the converged FDI solution. FDI is a unified solution for simple as well as the mostadvanced field devices, for the various tasks associated with all phases of their life cycle such as configuration, commissioning, diagnostics, and calibration.
FDI Cooperation, LLC membership includes five major automation foundations: FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communications Foundation, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, and the OPC Foundation. In October 2009,ECT broadened the scope of the FDI project to harmonize EDDL across communication protocols and provide FDI Design and Test Tools including a common EDD Interpreter. Implementation of the extended scope was supported by seven major supplier companies: ABB, Emerson Process Management, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Invensys, Siemens, and Yokogawa.

This is a joint press release by:
ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, Honeywell, Invensys, OPC Foundation, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, Siemens, and Yokogawa.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Sigrun Ebert-Heffels
on behalf of the FDI Cooperation, LLC

Phone:+49 (721) 595 56 76
Fax:+49 (721) 595 893 56 76
Mailto:

FDI Cooperation, LLC: f.l.t.r.Rich Timoney (Fieldbus Foundation); Jörg Freitag (PROFIBUS & PROFINET International); Thomas Burke (OPC Foundation); Glenn Schulz (FDT Group); Ron Helson (HART Communication Foundation)