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News Item: Case Study: Functional Safety Lifecycle Gaps Closed at Greenfield Fertilizer Facility
exida helps a chemical producer close gaps in functional safety design and implementation before hazards are introduced to the process. The Iowa Fertilizer Company (IFCo) facility in Weaver, IA is a world-scale greenfield fertilizer plant with a capacity of up to 3 million metric tons of nitrogen fertilizers. Contracted by…
Emerson Automation Solutions - K-Lok Butterfly Valve
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Valmet Flow Control Inc. - Axiom AN/ANX Valve Position Indicator/Controller
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Blog Entry: Safety Application Shortcuts - Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
No, you probably don’t want to hurt me. But if your product is used in a safety application, and my job depends on your product doing its job, will it hurt me if it fails? With so many of us doing more things differently during the COVID pandemic, I wonder…
News Item: Article on exida Ireland on Shannon Chamber web site
One year on, Shannon’s First Virtual Foreign Direct Investment sign-up, exida, is making strides in the European market Browsing through exida’s corporate profile, it is easy to see why this company has become one of the world’s leading product certification and knowledge companies, specialising in automation system safety, alarm management…
Blog Entry: Learning From History So We Don’t Repeat It – New Tools
According to numerous industry studies, significant improvement has been made over the last 20 -30 years in occupational safety, but not so much in operational safety (process safety). New process safety incidents continue to occur that bear a striking resemblance to previous incidents. This means we are not effectively learning…
Yokogawa Engineering Asia - Secure Development Life Cycle
ISASecure SDLA in the Security Automation Equipment List
Aira Euro Automation Pvt Ltd - Trunnion Mounted Ball Valves
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Aira Euro Automation Pvt Ltd - Triple Eccentric Butterfly Valve
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Aira Euro Automation Pvt Ltd - Floating Ball Valves
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Aira Euro Automation Pvt Ltd - Concentric Butterfly Valve
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Aira Euro Automation Pvt Ltd - Double Eccentric Butterfly Valve
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
Blog Entry: 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…
Recorded Webinars: Shared Components for SIS & BPCS – not a good idea
The webinar addresses the problems relating to the problems of sharing components between the Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) and Basic Process Control System (BPCS). The webinar highlights the impact on reliability and the need to perform an analysis on the contribution to the dangerous failure of the common cause failure, to ensure it is sufficiently low and within acceptable norms.
The webinar introduces the concept of the common cause factor (Beta) and the impact this has on shared or redundant components of SIS and BPCS. It explores some examples of the impact on PFDavg and how this can be compounded by also assuming perfect proof testing.
News Item: Wärtsilä receives first in the industry IEC 62443 Cybersecurity Certification from exida
Wärtsilä achieved IEC 62443 certification after a rigorous multi-month assessment from exida, the certifying organization and world leader in automation cyber security. The certification process included detailed analysis of engineering procedures to determine systematic capability and cyber security strength, documentation review, product design and device validation testing to show cyber…
Recorded Webinars: Alarm Management: Getting the Most Out of your Yokogawa Control System
Yokogawa has a long and rich history of “firsts” in the world of distributed control systems (DCS). They were one of the first suppliers to include alarm shelving, for example, long before it became required alarm management functionality per the ISA-18.2 / IEC 62682 standards. Despite this, many Yokogawa users don’t leverage the alarm management capabilities that are available to them. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss alarm management tools and capabilities that can be used to comply with the ISA-18.2 / IEC 62682 alarm management lifecycle, to reduce unwanted shutdowns (trips), reduce risk, and improve operator effectiveness. Highlights include discussion of how to analyze alarm system performance, perform rationalization, use eclipsing, alarm shelving, load shedding, alarm flood suppression, and present “Alarm Help” to the operator (alarm response procedures). Examples will be shown from CAMS, SILAlarm, exaquantum ARA and AMD, exapilot, and exaplog.
Emerson Automation Solutions - CVX and TBX Steam Conditioning Valves
IEC 61508 in the Safety Automation Equipment List
News Item: New Online Course - FSE 001 - Introduction to Functional Safety
Has a potential customer ever said “We Need SIL”? What does that mean? What are the standards that specify SIL levels? What are the basic principles of these standards? The INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL SAFETY course from exida answers these questions and many more. Intended for those who are new to…
Blog Entry: Why Sharing Components Between SIS & BPCS Is Not A Good Idea
This is a topic which comes up time and again, especially when reviewing legacy systems. Although IEC61511 doesn’t preclude the use of shared devices, it does however provide guidance under Clause 11 of what the constraints are. Even though the Safety Instrumented System 〈SIS〉 and Basic Process Control System 〈BPCS〉…
Recorded Webinars: Impact of Human Factors on Operator Response to Alarm
According to numerous industry studies, human failure contributes to upwards of 80% of industrial accidents. New incidents continue to occur that bear a striking resemblance to previous incidents. This means we are not effectively learning from history. The purpose of this webinar is to review selected process industry incidents where operator response to an alarm was a contributing factor. It will examine the incidents through the lens of Human Factors Engineering to seek new insights and lessons learned to improve operator performance. The presentation will identify the possible type(s) of human error (slips, lapses, mistakes, or violations) for each incident and review how cognitive biases, situation awareness demons, and mental model failures may have contributed to the operator’s response.