Fieldbus is becoming more widely accepted in the process industries.ARC Advisory Group, Dedham, Mass., did a study of 60 end users, OEMs, and systems integrators, with 50% of the respondents coming from North America.
To no one's surprise, Foundation fieldbus H1 and HSE and Profibus-PA and DP are the dominant choices among process industry users, with Foundation fieldbus the most popular, particularly in North America.
According to the majority of the respondents, fieldbus is mostly used on smaller-size systems, with 0-500 I/O. Some respondents say they will be installing fieldbus on medium-size and larger systems, some with more than 2,000 I/O.
The majority of installations have been in new plants or replacements for DCSs. The smallest number of installations have been PLC applications and DCSs with HART. In the future, the largest number of installations will continue to be new systems and add-ons to existing DCSes.
To see the full report, go to www.fieldbus.org.
