industrial//instrumentation

The field devices that measure the process and the signals they deliver: transmitters of temperature, pressure, flow and level, and the analog or digital path that carries their value to the controller.

The field devices that measure the process and the signals they deliver: transmitters of temperature, pressure, flow and level, and the analog or digital path that carries their value to the controller.

The classic path is a current loop, 4-20 mA, where the sensor hands over a single magnitude and all the meaning lives in the PLC. HART adds a digital conversation on top of that same loop; a smart sensor replaces the loop with a digital protocol and hands over state, diagnostics and identity as well.

Instruments outlive everything around them. A plant mixes a 1998 HART transmitter, a 2003 Modbus meter and a 2006 PROFIBUS device with a modern PLC, and digitalization means translating all of them into one vocabulary (data contextualization).