The FDT Group continues its activities to bring the system providers and device manufacturers together in order to provide the end users with integrated solutions right out of the box. Since November 2007, 22 FDT Group member companies have participated in a project at the facility of Dietz Automation GmbH in Neukirchen, Germany. The project is intended to test the interoperability of the FDT/DTM Technology in a very diverse setting. The test system setup includes many products from different vendors; 7 frames (systems or engineering tools) from 5 vendors, 21 devices with DTMs from 13 vendors, and 6 communication DTMs from 4 vendors. The system currently uses the most familiar digital protocols; Profibus, Hart, and Foundation Fieldbus. By checking the interactions between these systems and devices, the interoperability tests weed out the common problems and offer the end user maximum assurance for a problem free implementation of their FDT/DTM applications in their automation projects.
The test phase started in February and is scheduled to be completed in May. FDT Group intends to turn this test system into a permanent test and certification facility and to make it a part of the FDT certification process.
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