Putting NAMUR NE 107 to Work for You

One of the good things about FOUNDATION fieldbus being an open specification is that we can incorporate other standards and recommendations into our spec if they provide value to the end user.  This is the case with the NAMUR NE107 recommendations for device diagnostics.  For those of you that aren't aware, NAMUR is a user group comprised of many the world's major process automation end users.  The group publishes specific recommendations for areas of process automation that many times find their way into the world of process automation products and services.  The NE107 recommendations provide specific advice on how diagnostic information from intelligent devices should be presented to those that need it, from operators to maintenance technicians and engineers, in a standard format with standard colors and symbols.

The amount of diagnostic information available from today's field devices is staggering.  With a complex device on FOUNDATION fieldbus, such as a valve positioner or Coriolis flowmeter, you can have literally hundreds of diagnostic parameters.  Some of these parameters are going to provide information that is critical to the process, others may simply indicate the need for future maintenance.  NE107 provides a simple way to contextualize all of these parameters.

NAMUR NE107 Status Signals

The Fieldbus Foundation made NAMUR NE107 part of our specification, and all the devices that get tested and registered under our new Interoperability Test Kit version 6 must conform to the NE 107 spec.  The same goes for all our new host DCS systems tested under our new host profile registration process.

Emerson Process Management recently published a good white paper “Configuring FF912 Alarms in a DeltaV System”.  The Emerson DeltaV system is tested under our most recent host profile called "61b", which supports NE107.

The Fieldbus Foundation registered devNice site already has approximately 34 devices with NE107, and E107 compliant systems can already benefit from these devices. The number of devices supporting NE 107 is growing rapidly.  This means that new plants can now start benefiting from NE107 straight away. Existing plants can benefit from NE107 devices by upgrading system software to latest version supporting NE107. No hardware changes are required to enjoy NE107. 

NE107 compliant FOUNDATION fieldbus products are available From 21 different suppliers:

• AUMA
• Cameron
• DREHMO
• Emerson
•  Endress + Hauser
• FCI
• Heinrichs Messtechnik
•  Honeywell
• Invensys
• Magnetrol
• Metso
• Mettler-Toledo
• Micro Motion
•  Pepperl+Fuchs
•  Rosemount Analytical
• Stahl
•  TOKYO KEISO
• TopWorx
• VEGA
• Westlock
• Yokogawa
• Young Tech

Devices are available in 16 different categories:

• Bus diagnostics
• Conductivity Transmitter
• Coriolis Mass Flowmeter
• Displacement Level Transmitter
• Electric Actuator
• Field display
• Guided Wave Radar Level Transmitter
• Host System
• Nuclear Density and Level transmitter
• Nuclear Level Transmitter
• Nuclear Mass Flow Transmitter
• On/off valve
• Oxygen, Chlorine, and Ozone Transmitter
• pH, ORP, Redox Transmitter
• Pressure Transmitter
• Safety Valve Controller
• Thermal Mass Flow Transmitter
• Valve Positioner