Practical Considerations When Selecting A HART Handheld For Pharmaceutical Plants

A HART handheld is an essential tool in pharmaceutical plants deploying HART instrumentation. But what is a HART handheld? What are the differences between various handheld brands and what are the practical considerations that should be taken into account when selecting one to be used in a pharmaceutical plant?

The difference between calibration and configuration

Before beginning a discussion on HART handhelds, it is important to take a short look into a terminology issue that often causes confusion - the meaning of and difference between configuration and calibration.

According to international standards; calibration is a comparison of the device under test against a traceable reference instrument (calibrator) and documentation of this comparison. So, in order to do a calibration of a HART device, a traceable metrological reference device (calibrator) is needed.

Configuration means using the digital communication protocol to change settings inside the field device.  Configuration can be done with a configuration software or handheld communicator. It is important to remember that a communicator alone cannot be used for metrological calibration to check the accuracy of a field device. For a real metrological calibration, a traceable reference standard (calibrator) is always needed. Configuration is not the same as calibration.