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Entries tagged with: Functional Safety

Can Wireless be used in Functional Safety?

Can Wireless be used in Functional Safety?

exida just completed certification of a new sensor product that uses wireless communication to signal a safety logic solver of a potential problem.  Shortly after the certificate was posted, a challenge arose:  “How can wireless be used for safety?”  Well, it is different.  A designer must be fully…

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Functional Safety And Electromagnetic Interference: What’s the Connection?

Functional Safety And Electromagnetic Interference: What’s the Connection?

Functional Safety and Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) may not often be used in the same sentence. But EMI is just one of the environmental stresses that can stop a system from performing its safety function. It is important for a functional safety system to be immune from the EMI levels…

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Functional Safety Evolution

Functional Safety Evolution

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…

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Functional Safety Standards - IEC 61508 vs. IEC 61511

Functional Safety Standards - IEC 61508 vs. IEC 61511

IEC 61508 is considered a basic or “umbrella” standard for functional safety.  It is generic and sometimes even vague.  IEC 61508 was intended that various industry sectors provide their own specific standards and guidelines as needed.  Here we can see the relationship between 61508 and other standards, such as…

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How Does Culture Affect Safety?

How Does Culture Affect Safety?

I was reading an incident report on the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) website the other day, where it was the conclusion of the reviewing team that the incident (which sadly resulted in a loss of life) was the direct result of a poor safety culture across the…

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If There Was ONE THING to Know About Functional Safety

Formalize your process.

Companies often have a pretty good hardware development process in place, dealing with electrical and mechanical drawings, bills of material, and the factory floor interface.  Most of these processes are in place so the manufacturing department knows what to make and how to put it together. …

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Making Use of Leading and Lagging Indicators – Are You Using These for Functional Safety?

Making Use of Leading and Lagging Indicators – Are You Using These for Functional Safety?

Some of you reading this may not be aware or familiar with the terms “leading” and “lagging” indicators, when applied to Functional Safety.  The concept isn’t new but does provide significant benefit when applying this to Functional Safety because, if used correctly, these indicators can help significantly improve performance. …

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Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something!

Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something!

When I first heard this phrase, I was working in an R&D group developing electronic DCS.  My first interpretation was that until the Sales Department got an order for a new product, new ideas sort of sat on the shelf with low priority… meaning that people were probably working…

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So what does Interference-Free mean?  And why do we care?

So what does Interference-Free mean?  And why do we care?

An Interference-Free component, either as an interface or a defined functional area, is a system component that is neither safety critical (C3) nor safety relevant (C2), but interfaces with such subsystems. 

If a component has been shown to be interference free (C1), then it has been demonstrated that no…

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  • by Dave Butler, CFSE
  • Thursday, August 29, 2013
  • Software

Software Modeling and Functional Safety: Part 2

Part 1 of this blog entry discussed software modeling, modeling notation, and modeling tools. But, what does this have to do with Functional Safety?  The IEC 61508 standard has requirements, for certain SIL levels, regarding the use of:

  • “Semi-formal methods”
  • Computer-aided specification and design tools
  • Design standards
  • Performance modeling
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The 3rd Party Effect (Part 1)
  • by Ted Stewart, CFSP, exidaCSP
  • Thursday, December 08, 2016
  • Certification

The 3rd Party Effect (Part 1)

Have you even wondered, been involved, or WERE the little kid that didn’t listen to your parents, but always listened to a teacher?  This is called the “Third party effect.”  In business, it is well known that the power of persuasion can be the most effective by a third…

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The Importance of Process Safety to the next Generation of Chemical Engineers

The Importance of Process Safety to the next Generation of Chemical Engineers

What is Competency Anyway?

What is Competency Anyway?

I’ve been following some discussions from one of the online forums regarding competency and it’s clear from the correspondence that the issue of competency is still very subjective.  It made me think about “what is competency?” To me it’s a blend of knowledge and experience and just how well…

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What is SIL (Safety Integrity Level)?
  • by Dr. William Goble, CFSE
  • Thursday, April 08, 2021
  • Certification

What is SIL (Safety Integrity Level)?

The term SIL is rapidly spreading to Request for Proposals (RFP) and purchase requirements in many industries.  But in many of those industries, few have heard about SIL and fewer have a grasp of the fundamental concepts of SIL.  SIL is a term that means Safety Integrity Level. It is used…

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Why Proof Test Coverage Is So Important For A SIF to Achieve Its Target SIL?

Why Proof Test Coverage Is So Important For A SIF to Achieve Its Target SIL?

This is a question I often get asked when I’m teaching our FSE100 course on Functional Safety, when we discuss the purpose of Proof Testing and coverage.  It’s amazing how many end users assume perfect proof testing (i.e. 100% coverage), that is capable of finding, all the…

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