It always amazes me that when teaching our FSE 100 Functional Safety Engineering course, the number of times I find that end users in the class are not really measuring the performance of their SIS. In most cases, they are doing some measurements, but not thoroughly.
It…
Ehh… If your safety action is stopping flow/closing a valve, how are you going to accomplish this if you consider that the remote actuated valve is not part of your SIF ?
So, what is this myth based on? The title of IEC 61508 reads “Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable…
Those operating in the process world should be familiar with the concept of Functional Safety Management (FSM) and the need to have well defined processes and procedures in place. Otherwise, how else will they be able to ensure that their Safety Instrumented System (SIS) and plant…
As the cybersecurity threats in the industrial world continue to rise, the automation world continues to grapple with how to address these issues. As such, the newly released IEC61511-1: 2016 edition has included a new clause to address this (Clause 8.2.4). In essence, End Users have to carry out…
The IEC 61511 Standard requires the user to create a Safety Requirements Specification (SRS) for a Safety Instrumented System (SIS) that incorporates all the analysis done during the Risk Assessment, HAZOP/PHA and LOPA reviews. The SRS falls into two types: an initial conceptual SRS, often referred to as the…
exida has launched the web site www.silsafedata.com. SILSafe Data is a web site listing a number of product categories used in process control and the expected range of failure rates for process industry applications. The use of realistic and application appropriate failure rate data has a significant…
It’s hard to believe that the IEC61511 standard has been in existence since 2003, and most companies operating in the process, chemical, and refining industries (or any other hazardous process manufacturer) have adopted its practices. It’s also significant that any plants that were built back then with a…
Many products have options and features that are valuable to users. But not all these features should be permitted while the product is performing a safety function. For example, HART communications should not be permitted to write data to a transmitter while it’s performing the safety function. If you…
If you’re a manager in the process industries then you should be familiar with the concept of Functional Safety and the need to have well defined processes and procedures in place. If not, then how else will you be able to ensure that your Safety Instrumented System and plant…
One of the fundamentals of the Probability of Failure on Demand (PFDavg) calculations in SIL verification analysis, is the concept of a constant failure-rate during useful life of the equipment. Probabilistic calculations assume that the failure rate of the devices used in a Safety Instrumented System (SIS)…