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News Item: exida Presented an Alarm Management with PlantPAx® Lab at Rockwell Automation TechED
Todd Stauffer, exida Director of Alarm Management presented at the Rockwell Automation TechED held June 12-17, 2016 in Orlando, FL. PR15 Alarm Management with PlantPAx® This hands-on lab use the capabilities of PlantPAx® Alarm Builder to exchange alarm information with our new Encompass Partner exida’s software package, SILAlarm. The users…
Blog Entry: 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 (dictionary.com),…
News Item: exida Presents Schneider Electric with Safety Award for Process Automation Cybersecurity Development
Mike Medoff, exida senior safety engineer presented the 2015 exida Safety Award in the Cybersecurity Category to Schneider Electric recognizing their Process Automation Cybersecurity Development Process. The presentation was delivered at Connect 2016 , Schneider Electric’s Automation Conference on May 24, 2016 in New Orleans, LA. The exida Safety Awards…
Recorded Webinars: IEC 61508: Certification of Mechanical Safety Equipment
This webinar describes the benefits of selecting IEC 61508 certified mechanical equipment for a safety application. The step-by-step process used to certify a mechanical device will be explained, as well as what to expect in preparing for the certification process. The webinar will also cover the benefits and limitations of a mechanical certification. Anyone wanting to understand the benefits of using certified equipment, or are interested in getting their devices certified should attend.
Blog Entry: 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 in…
News Item: exida Asia Pacific Presenting Paper at 4th CCPS China Conference on Process Safety
Felix Wang from exida Asia Pacific will be presenting a paper on “Practical SIL Target Selection for a Safety Instrumented Function in a Two-stage Compressor System” at the 4th CCPS China Conference on Process Safety (June 1-3 2016, Qingdao China). Paper Title: Practical SIL Target Selection for a Safety Instrumented…
News Item: 2016 First Chinese FSP/CFSE/CFSP Course in Qingdao, China
exida Asia Pacific had successfully conducted the Chinese FSE 100 course in Qingdao, China on 11-14 April 2016. Dr. Felix Wang, Senior Safety Consultant, conducted the Chinese course to 13 participants from Qingdao Moses, Sinochem, PetroChina, Daqing Petrochemical, Sinopec and etc. Throughout the course, topics on Safety Lifecycle, Safety Integrity…
Recorded Webinars: Functional Safety Evaluation for Machine Applications
Accidents and injuries resulting from machine applications continue to be a major concern. International and national standards have evolved to better address this area of risk. This webinar will present an overview of those standards, the safety lifecycle as it applies to machine applications, and steps that equipment suppliers and operators can take to meet these standards.
Blog Entry: 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 B…
Blog Entry: 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 Hazards Analysis is the first…
News Item: exida Asia Pacific Conducts New IEC 61511 Second Edition Updates Course
exida Asia Pacific recently conducted the new 1-day training course titled New IEC 61511 Second Edition Updates on May 6, 2016 in Singapore. “The course was especially effective in identifying the changes with respect to IEC61511 2003 version in O&M, FSA, cyber security etc.” - George Samuel, Amec Foster Wheeler…
Bifold Fluidpower Ltd. - FP50(B) and FP200(B) Directional Control Valves
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
News Item: Schneider Electric Achieves exida Security Development Lifecycle Certification
exida, the global leader in functional safety and cybersecurity certification for the process industries has certified three Schneider Electric product development sites in Foxboro, Mass., Worthing, U.K., and Hyderabad, India, for compliance with the exida Security Development Lifecycle certification based on IEC 62443-4-1 . exida is a globally recognized ISO…
Recorded Webinars: Why Conduct a Functional Safety Assessment (FSA)?
The purpose of Functional Safety Assessments (FSAs) is twofold: to ensure that all the activities and documentation for the particular Safety Lifecycle (SLC) phase have been completed as per requirements; to help prevent systematic failures from being introduced. The IEC61511 2003 version recommends five (5) FSAs be conducted but specifies that at least one (1) be conducted prior to starting up the process – FSA 3, also known as the pre-startup safety check. Most companies only rely on FSA 3 but this means that they are risking a delayed startup if problems and/or errors are found, which can of course be costly.
However, the new edition of IEC61511, to be issued this year, proposes to mandate that ALL five (5) FSAs be conducted. This will have a significant impact on end user practices, whereby they will need to provide documentary evidence that these have been carried out according to requirements. This is especially relevant for the operation and maintenance side, whereby periodic assessment and management of change will require FSAs. The webinar will outline the requirements for each FSA and why, if implemented properly, these can lead to a much more efficient and effective design for Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS). The benefit of which will be to keep costs down and improve availability.
Blog Entry: 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 is “are you…
News Item: exida Among Presenters at Experitec’s Alarm Management Best Practices Forum
Todd Stauffer, exida Director of Alarm Management is among the presenters at the Experitec Alarm Management Best Practices Forum. This forum will be held in both Lenexa, KS and Bartlett, TN. Discussion Topics: Introduction of Alarm Management Principles Alarm System Benchmarking/Performance Assessment Developing an Alarm Philosophy Document Alarm Rationalization Smart…
Recorded Webinars: Field Data Collection Process Validation with Predictive Analytics
The new edition of IEC 61511 has strong language about the need to gather field failure data for each site. The benefits of this activity can be many but it is essential that the process used to gather the data be validated against field failure data benchmarks. This webinar discusses some actual problems discovered with data collections systems and describes a benchmark technique.
Velosi Asset Integrity Ltd. - VAIL-Plant PEMS, PIMSON, PIMSOFF Modules (RBI Function)
API 580, ASME 31.8S:2012 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Blog Entry: 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 are…
News Item: exida Presenting at 2016 #girlSTEM Conference
Loren Stewart, exida Safety Engineer will be presenting at The Fifth Annual #girlSTEM Conference , to be held May 26, 2016 at Delaware Valley University. The presentation is titled Why Be a Princess When You Can Be an Engineer? #girlSTEM seeks to inspire middle-to-high school girls to pursue STEM- related…