Protection systems have been around for a long time, going back to having a canary in the mine, and throughout the Industrial Revolution; so they are not a new thing. Various stakeholders were involved in business enterprises: owners, suppliers, consumers, community members, and workers. Usually the business owners held…
exida explains Blog
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Thursday, June 30, 2016
- Functional Safety
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Practical SIL Target Selection - Risk Analysis per the IEC 61511 Safety Lifecycle
Each month at exida, we strive to spotlight one of our products that makes the job easier for today's industry professional. In this blog, I wanted to talk about the exida publication Practical SIL Target Selection - Risk Analysis per the IEC 61511 Safety Lifecycle which is based on numerous…
- by Rick Smith
- Tuesday, June 28, 2016
- Industrial Cybersecurity
Network Segmentation and the Fragile PLC
One of the best parts of my job is I get to walk around and look over what has been implemented in the way of physical and cyber security. Most of the time I am very impressed by what has been done as more and more companies are realizing…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Tuesday, June 14, 2016
- Software
The Meaning of Tool Integration
What does tool integration mean? One can argue it is the ability for different tools to talk to each other and exchange data. Though this may be true from a typical software tool integration, a common definition of integrate, i.e. to bring together or incorporate (parts) into a whole…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Wednesday, June 08, 2016
- Functional Safety
Let’s Get Personal… with Risk
We recognize that risk is inherent in many aspects of our lives. And most of us will do what is prudent to avoid unreasonable risk in our activities, such that we are left with some level of tolerable risk. It may be safer to stay home and not travel…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Tuesday, May 31, 2016
- Certification
Are All Field Devices Type A?
I was told by an end user engineer that he considers all field devices to be simple Type A devices. In IEC 61508, Type A is defined as a device with well-defined failure modes, well known failure rates, and behavior under fault conditions that can be completely determined. Type…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Monday, May 23, 2016
- Software
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: exSILentia® – PHA / PHAx™
Each month at exida, we strive to spotlight one of our products that makes the job easier for today's industry professional. In this blog, I wanted to talk about the PHAx module as part of our exSIlentia Safety Lifecycle Suite.
Process Hazards Analysis (PHA)
Process…
- by Steve Gandy, CFSP
- Tuesday, May 17, 2016
- Functional Safety
Are You Ready For What’s Coming?
If you’re like me then you’ve been waiting for the new draft of IEC 61511 to be officially issued since its release has been delayed for some time. However, a draft has been released and can help in preparing end users for what’s to come. The question…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Friday, May 06, 2016
- Functional Safety
What Good is a Safety Manual?
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…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, April 19, 2016
- Alarm Management
New Version of ISA-18.2 Alarm Management Standard Is Released (2016)
The new and updated version of the ISA-18.2 standard (ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016, Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries) has now been officially released. This supersedes the original edition (2009). The new version incorporates feedback from 6+ years in the "field" and includes some updates based on the IEC 62682…
- by Iwan van Beurden, CFSE
- Monday, April 18, 2016
- Functional Safety
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Safety Equipment Reliability Handbook, 4th edition
Each month at exida, we strive to spotlight one of our products that makes the job easier for today's industry professional. In this blog, I wanted to talk about our latest edtion of the SERH (Safety Equipment Realiability Handbook).
The SERH provides a collection of failure rate data…
- by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
- Monday, April 11, 2016
- Certification
Site Safety Index™ (SSI) – A Simple Model for Site Variations in Safety
In several of our technical papers over the years, we have noticed that failure rates for the manufacturer, model number are different at different sites, even when the processes were quite similar. When I have mentioned this to end users and manufacturers, often the response is “Yes, I have…
- by John Yozallinas, CFSE
- Tuesday, March 29, 2016
- Functional Safety
Is Your Team Ready for the Big Game?
How does a team get to play in the NCAA tournament? They don’t just buy plane tickets and arrive at the arena ready to play whoever else shows up. In fact, there is a rather rigorous process to determine who gets to play and what seed they are, which…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, March 15, 2016
- Software
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: SILAlarm V2.10 - Alarm Flood Suppression
The ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682 alarm management standards provide recommended targets for average alarm rate and for alarm floods - a condition during which the alarm rate is greater than the operator can effectively manage (e.g., more than 10 alarm per 10 mins)…
- by Todd Stauffer
- Tuesday, March 01, 2016
- Alarm Management
Claiming alarms as an independent protection layer (IPL)
An interesting question arose recently when creating an FSM plan:
Does the ISA-18.2 standard on alarm management address the claiming of the operator’s response to alarms as a layer of protection?
Not specifically, however the ISA-18.2 standard does require that alarms are rationalized, and that alarm system performance…