A Milestone is Reached: Why Everyone is Talking about FDI

Related Vendors

Schubert_CP_gross_rgb (003).jpg (Gerhard Schubert GmbH)

Gerhard Schubert GmbH - Verpackungsmaschinen

DÜPERTHAL Sicherheitstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

Italvacuum, Srl

ABB Automation Products GmbH

Endress+Hauser AG

more less

PI will actively participate in the further development of FDI and will provide Profibus- and Profinet-specific parts in developer tools, as well. Another example is the handling of devices for mobile automation and handhelds in order to integrate FDI in an application-compatible manner. PI’s own experts will be represented in all relevant activities.

Users urgently want the certification process, which should include interoperability in particular, to be carried out through user tests in test labs, similar as for Profibus and FF. This is also how PI sees it (see interview below). The certification tests of Profibus and Profinet products with FDI are to be performed in accredited vendor-neutral PI Test Labs and the certificates issued by the PI certification body.

User Michael Pelz of Clariant Products also wants a central location where complete certified FDI packages can be downloaded.
(Picture: Clariant)

Vendor-Neutral Field Device Integration

For Kilian, FDI is taking off this year: “This is a huge relief for us. As a manufacturer, the costs for supporting four to five systems is high. But in the test labs, the tests and equipment for performing interoperability tests are also immense at the moment.” He concedes that the various EDDL dialects were also a problem there. “We actually had to expend technological development effort for the various dialects. The development of FDI has to be viewed very positively in this context, too.”

The harmonization of the EDDL dialects was a fundamental requirement for the current FDI version. For Kilian, proprietary systems related to device integration ultimately belong to the past: “We would rather put our energy into promoting innovative things than into maintaining and updating various interfaces.”

Why Manufactures Place their Hopes on FDI

Device manufacturers also have high hopes on FDI. “For one thing, each communication protocol currently has a separate EDD dialect, which is expressed in a different set of methods, for example. This means we have to write a separate EDD for each type of communication,” stated Dr. Rolf Birkhofer of Endress+Hauser Process Solutions in Reinach. In addition, the host applications of some manufacturers interpret an EDD in their way and thus exhibit their own behavior. “We have even already had to discover from a host manufacturer that a new host version could no longer work with our released and tested EDDs,” said Birkhofer.

(ID:43221655)