Fieldbus Foundation announces copyright agreement with Prolist International

The Fieldbus Foundation has announced it has signed a copyright agreement with Prolist International. The agreement allows Prolist to publish Foundation fieldbus parameter names and definitions in its standardised process control device/system specifications and database.

Headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany, Prolist International is a not-for-profit organisation composed of corporate (automation manufacturers and end users) and university members. It is the successor organisation to the Project Group 'Lists of Properties' (Prolist), supported by NAMUR, the international process industries’ end-user group, and Zentralverband Elektrotechnik-und Elektronikindustrie e.V. (ZVEI), the German electrical and electronic manufacturers' association. NAMUR and ZVEI have collaborated to define and record properties and lists of properties (LOPs) for process control/automation devices and systems.

Prolist International seeks reduced engineering and transaction costs for procurement and sales in the area of process control technology. This includes integration of the workflows of all parties involved in plant life cycle management. The basis for this effort has been created in the form of machine-readable descriptions of the properties of process automation components that are relevant for engineering purposes.

The working results of Prolist are published as LOPs in the NAMUR Recommendation NE 100 'Use of Lists of Properties in Process Control Engineering Workflows', which provides a method for standardising the descriptions of process control and instrumentation equipment. As such, it supports data exchange between systems in a customer-supplier relationship.

Fieldbus Foundation President and CEO Rich Timoney praised his organisation’s involvement with Prolist International. “The Fieldbus Foundation is pleased to take part in Prolist through this copyright agreement,” said Timoney. “We support the long-term goal of Prolist, which is to optimise processes throughout the entire plant life cycle at every point where information systems exchange data on process control devices. This endeavour will help companies reduce transaction costs by an electronic data exchange format which vendors, owner/operators and EPC firms can use for communications.”

Timoney added, “Foundation technology is key to the global adoption of the Prolist initiative. Ultimately, we believe this effort will result in the establishment of an international standard in cooperation with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and International Society of Automation (ISA).”

Supported by many of the major process automation suppliers and end users, Prolist International is creating lists of properties (eSpec Sheets) covering all classes of process control devices. Another task has been development of an easy-to-use web server for creating and maintaining instrumentation eSpec Sheets. The organisation has also developed application tools for handling files and creating an XML-exchange format supported by SAP.

Fieldbus Foundation
www.fieldbus.org
Prolist International
www.prolist.org