The Singapore marketing committee for Fieldbus Foundation marked a decade of success in Southeast Asia with an informative evening talk, a chocolate birthday cake, plus plenty of wine to boost the convivial atmosphere, in an event held at the NUS Guild House in July.Back in 1997, it was Singapore that held the very first seminar in Asia to promote the then new digital, open network targeted at process plant field device communications.Along with representatives from supplier companies and a number of key end users, flying in especially for the occasion was Rich Timoney, President and CEO of the Fieldbus Foundation (pictured third from right), who answered a number of queries from the audience related to the impact the FOUNDATION fieldbus network has made over the last decade and the technological enhancements that still lie ahead.“In 1998, we released the H1 specification, and in 2000 we released the HSE specification,” said Timoney when he spoke to CE Asia during the event. “And everybody said I would be out of a job once we did that!“I like to think that what we’re into today is the application phase, involving aspects such as safety systems and standardizing diagnostics. And we have significantly improved our testing of products – all FOUNDATION devices need to get that check mark to indicate that they have been certified.”Familiar faces from the regional automation scene spotted at the event included Kersi Aspar of Yokogawa; Shane Parr of Pepperl+Fuchs; Dave Johnson and Rakesh Khanna of Rockwell Automation; and Henk Schaake of Turck.
Free Magazine Subscription
Printer-friendly version
Email to a Friend 
