exida explains Blog

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since the Deepwater Horizon incident on April 20th 2010.  Even today, the Gulf Coast is still feeling the effects.  In its latest estimates, BP is looking at a total loss of $65Bn USD, in settlements, fines and compensation.  This latest estimate was published in…

Read More...

2011 was a good year in many ways for Functional Safety and Cyber Security. Several instrumentation products achieved IEC 61508 certification. exida Certification alone issued 64 product certifications (http://www.sael-onine.com).  With most certification projects, improvements to the design and quality are made.  Some manufacturers…

Read More...

Product Certification

Over 60 new products received functional safety or cybersecurity certification this year. Those products and more…

Read More...

In the following series of blogs, we'll go back to basics and run down everything you need to know to get started in functional safety.  We'll start with some more general terms and descriptions and make our way to more advanced material.

1. Functional Safety

Functional safety means the…

Read More...

In the following series of blogs, we'll go back to basics and run down everything you need to know to get started in functional safety.  We'll start with some more general terms and descriptions and make our way to more advanced material.

2. Safety Integrity Level (SIL)

Read More...

In the following series of blogs, we'll go back to basics and run down everything you need to know to get started in functional safety.  We'll start with some more general terms and descriptions and make our way to more advanced material.

3. SIF

SIF – Safety Instrumented Function…

Read More...

In the following series of blogs, we'll go back to basics and run down everything you need to know to get started in functional safety.  We'll start with some more general terms and descriptions and make our way to more advanced material.

4. SIS

A SIS – Safety Instrumented…

Read More...

In the following series of blogs, we'll go back to basics and run down everything you need to know to get started in functional safety. We'll start with some more general terms and descriptions and make our way to more advanced material.

IEC 61508: 2010 International Performance-Based Standard 

TheRead More...

IEC 61508 functional safety standard indicates Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) needs to be evaluated by three design barriers:

• The Systematic Capability Rating
• The Architectural Constraints for the Element
• The Probability of Failure for the Product

Systematic Capability is achieved when the equipment…

Read More...

IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 functional safety standards allow Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) to be used four ways by end users:

1. To establish risk reduction requirements - How much risk needs/can be removed from the process to achieve a tolerable risk level? (For more…

   Read More...

IEC 61508 Certification is a Third-Party Validation against the standard’s requirements, comprising of:

• Detailed Analysis of engineering processes to determine Systematic Capability and Cybersecurity Strength 
• Detailed Analysis of hardware design / design margins resulting in Random Failure Rate in all failure modes
• Analysis/Testing to show safe, correct operation and Cybersecurity Susceptibility

To achieve an…

Read More...

Do you want to know more about IEC 61508 certification, but you’re not sure if you are ready to jump in? Don’t worry, we will make this process as painless as possible.

Here is what to expect:

1. Introduce Scope
2. Kickoff Meeting
3. Perform FMEDA on Product
4. Creation of…

   Read More...

Walking into work last week and seeing this article reassured me why I work at exida.  Incidents, like this recent one at a pesticide plant in eastern China, are why we push every day to help educate people about the importance of functional safety.

Have you heard about…

Read More...

exida is often posed questions regarding our failure rates used in Failure Modes, Effects and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA) for products used in safety-related systems. 

Today I would like to focus on a question that was recently asked: “What if my products are unique or different than products…

Read More...

When a product is getting certified for functional safety, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the safety function.  First, let’s be clear what is meant by the safety function.  IEC 61508-4 describes a safety function as a “function to be implemented by a safety-related system or…

Read More...

There’s a lot that exida does behind the scenes to advance the industry and benefit you. We try to make sense of data that we collect and put it to good use. One thing we found is that human activities play a role in functional safety, often causing the intended safety performance…

Read More...

You don’t’ really know what you know until you have to explain it (or teach it) to someone else. 

When I’m asked about some of the technical aspects of functional safety, I have to stop and ask myself “What Do I Know About This?”  I’m not the kind…

Read More...

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…

Read More...

Today, April 15th, is tax-day in the US.  Ok, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has given us a few extra days this year (the tax filing deadline is not until April 18th).

There are a lot of similarities between how you do your taxes and how you handle…

Read More...

Have you ever wondered if you tested your product enough? Either in enough ways or for a long enough time?  This assumes that you’d prefer to discover all the problems before your customers do. If you follow a 61508 compliant development process, you should be able to…

Read More...