History

Founded in 1993, the HART Communication Foundation, an international, not-for-profit, membership organization, is the technology owner and central authority on the HART Protocol. The Foundation manages and controls the Protocol standards including new technology developments and enhancements.

The primary focus for all Foundation activities is to advance the application of HART technology, strengthen its position in the global market, and help users maximize the value of their smart instrumentation investments.

Creation of Foundation
In September 1990 a group of industry professionals gathered in Bloomington, Minnesota, for the first official meeting of what was then called the HART Users Group. The meeting lasted two days and required only five pages of Recorded Minutes. But the moment was significant. That meeting marked the beginning of HART as an “open” communication technology.

Representatives from 26 companies sat in that first meeting. They talked about the HART technology—Application Layer, the Data Link Layer, the Physical Layer—and discussed the organization of a group that would manage the protocol standards and provide worldwide support for the technology.

The companies attending were: ABB Kent-Taylor, AppliedSystem Technologies, Eckardt, Endress+Hauser, Engineering Measurements, Exxon Chemicals, Fischer & Porter, Fisher Controls, Hartmann & Braun, Hitachi, Honeywell, ITT Barton, Kay-Ray/Sensall, Moore Products, M-System, MTL, NCR, NovaTech, Proctor & Gamble, Rosemount, Sherex Chemical, Siemens, SMAR, Southwest Research Institute, Valtek and Yokogawa.

At a second meeting in December of 1990, member companies passed bylaws and established four working groups: Definition, Conformance Testing, Man-Machine Interface and Interoperability. Three meetings were held in 1991 and by November, two more working groups had been added: Output and PID. The first HART Product Data Sheet was also presented.

In March 1993, the HART User Group voted to create the support group they had discussed in that first meeting: an independent, not-for-profit organization to manage and support the HART Protocol. In June, the HART Communication Foundation was established.

Technology Enhancements
Throughout our history, we have worked with our member companies and with industry users to develop major enhancements to the HART Protocol that address industry needs for enhanced device communication and to create additional product development tools.

The Foundation introduced the HART Server in 1999, an easy-to-use, OPC-compliant software application that provides an easy-to-use gateway for accessing real-time process and diagnostic information available in HART field instrumentation.

In 2001 the first major enhancement to the Protocol, HART 6, was released. It included support for longer tags, additional Common Practice Commands and faster digital communications.

HART Device Description Language (DDL) has been a key element of HART technology since 1990. In 2004, the DDL was approved by IEC as an International Standard. Today it remains the most important and widely used digital communication descriptive language.

In 2004, we released the HART DD-IDE (Device Description Integrated Development Environment) with Smart Device Configurator (SDC-625), an integrated set of tools that supports development, testing and maintenance of DDs for HART devices.

Working in collaboration with other international fieldbus organizations and automation system and device suppliers, the Foundation completed enhancements to the DDL in 2005, making standardized device configuration a reality.

In 2006, the Foundation established a HART Users Group and is currently working in cooperation with other industry groups to find ways to integrate HART technology for the benefit of the entire industry.

In 2007, the latest step in the evolution of the HART Protocol, HART 7, moved the technology into the world of wireless communication. HART 7 includes the new WirelessHART standard and addresses the critical needs of the process industry for a secure, reliable, and simple technology that provides a common sense and industrial strength network solution to wireless communication. In 2010, WirelessHART technology was recognized by the IEC as the first full international standard for wireless communication in the process industry.

Foundation Programs
In 2002, the Foundation created the HART Plant of the Year Award Program, to recognize ingenuity in the application of HART technology. The award recognizes people, companies and plant sites that are using the full capabilities of HART Communication in real-time applications to improve operations, lower costs and increase plant availability.

Our current Educational Programs include training workshops, international trade shows and conferences, the HART website, an online product catalog, e-learning, newsletters, publications, CDs, and speaking engagements.

Today, the Foundation is supported by more than 230 of the world’s leading process automation suppliers around the world and has offices in Austin, Texas, USA, Basel, Switzerland, and Shanghai, China.

Technology Successes
1994          DD Registration Program and DD Library
1995          HART Test Specifications, Procedures and Device Registration Program
1999          HART OPC Server
2001          Enhanced Diagnostics for System Integration with HART 6
2003          DD Integrated Development Environment
2004          Smart Device Configurator Software Technology—SDC-625
2005          Enhanced DD Language
2006         HART Protocol IEC Standards Approved (IEC 61158)

2007 HART 7 with WirelessHART

2008 HART Wi-Analys Test Receiver and Wi-Analys Network Analyzer

2009 OPC Server upgrade to HART 7

2010 WirelessHART IEC Standards approved (IEC 62591Ed. 1.0)