Hart Foundation Celebrates 15 Years

Organised in 1993, the Hart Communication Foundation is celebrating 15 years of continuous growth and service to the industry. “The most significant accomplishment of the Hart Communication Foundation (HCF) in our 15-year history is establishing the Hart Protocol as the global standard and leading communication technology for intelligent measurement and control devices in process automation”, says HCF Executive Director Ron Helson.

“Our crowning achievement is the recent enhancement and extension of the protocol standards to enable wireless devices and establish the first wireless communication standard for process automation - WirelessHart”.

The not-for-profit organization establishes communication standards for intelligent process instrumentation and provides open, unbiased technical programs and support services to facilitate the adoption, application and use of Hart technology in process applications around the world. Throughout its 15 year history, the Foundation has supported and enhanced the Hart technology to serve process industry needs while remaining true to its key principles of backward compatibility and interoperability.

“A major role of the Foundation is ensuring the Hart technology serves the evolving needs of industry users and suppliers”, says Helson. “The new WirelessHart standard is the latest step in the evolution of Hart technology”. WirelessHart provides simple, reliable and secure wireless communication with the same user-friendly experience that Hart users know and expect.

"The new wireless communication capability preserves and builds on the extensive investment in Hart-enabled devices, tools, training, work procedures, system interfaces and software applications in use throughout the process automation and manufacturing industries today."