On June, 25, 2007 the forming meeting of ISA-SP103 “Field Device Tool Interface Specification” took place during ISA’s Summer Leaders Meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona. The committee ISA-SP103 was accepted by the Standards&Practices Board in January 2006 with the scope to develop a standard to fully integrate fieldbuses, devices and sub-systems as seamless parts of the automation life-cycle. While the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is working towards an international standard in its SC65E WG4 committee, the ISA-SP103 will contribute and assist the responsible U.S. TAG (US Technical Advisory Group) hosted by ISA as well (ISA-SPTAG65E, System Engineering & Management). It is planned to form the core for the TAG and to assist the TAG to select experts from the U.S.
During the first meeting which was convened by Klaus-Peter Lindner as interim chair the candidate for new chairman, Mr. Ahmad Zahedi, Flowserve, was introduced. Topics as membership and status, review of scope & purpose, as well as next steps and next meeting were discussed and agreed. The next face-to-face meeting is scheduled during ISA EXPO 2007 in Houston, Texas, US on Tuesday, 02 October 2007, 1:00 pm – 5:30 pm, in the Reliant Center.
“We are very proud to have Saudi Aramco as one very prominent and international user supporting ISA-SP103 as a voting member.”, commented Klaus-Peter Lindner, member of ISA Standards & Practices Board. Ahmad Zahedi continued, “The market has a growing need for open standards and FDT is one major piece to fulfil customer requirements. I am very proud to be nominated as chairman and look forward to the future of ISA-SP103 making excellent contribution to the IEC standard.”
The commenting phase for IEC 62453 “Field Device Tool” – 2nd Committee Draft (CD) ends September 7th, 2007. The FDT Group will give every technical and organizational support to ISA-SP103 targeting to grow acceptance of the FDT Technology in the USA.
About the FDT Group AISBL™
The FDT Group AISBL is a non-profit corporation consisting of over 55 leading process and factory automation companies worldwide whose major purpose is to provide an open and non proprietary interface for the integration of field devices with engineering, automation and asset management systems. In this environment, end users, manufacturers, universities and research organizations are working together to develop the technology, provide development tools, support and training, coordinate field trials and demonstrations, and enable product interoperability.