The ZigBee Alliance has announced that Eaton is now a Promoter level member and the newest member of the ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors. Eaton has been a Participant level member of the ZigBee Alliance since the Alliance’s inception in 2002. Eaton joins Ember, Freescale, Honeywell, Huawei Technologies, Mitsubishi Electric, Motorola, Philips, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Siemens, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments on the ZigBee Alliance Board of Directors.

“Eaton believes that ZigBee technology offers a number of new product and revenue opportunities while offering consumers a variety of convenience, safety and security tools they never dreamed of before,” said John A. Wafer, vice president and chief technology officer, Electrical Group, Eaton. “Today, consumers using our award-winning Home Heartbeat line of home control products are seeing the benefits and convenience of wireless technology.”

ZigBee offers a large and robust supply chain, with numerous compliant platforms. Open standards allow OEMs to avoid developing proprietary technology or being dependent on the financial solvency of a single company.