News

Assignment and management of more than 50'000 instrument-based protective systems.
Risk assessment of all protective equipment in accordance with IEC61511-3.
Fault rate calculation for all safety instrumented systems and determination of the test intervals on the basis of IEC 61508 or in accordance with the NAMUR recommendation (NE) 93, respectively.
Considerations regarding economic efficiency based on the expenditure for testing, hardware and reserves.
Complete documentation management.
Client / Server installation for a plant-wide safety management.

The majority of users are looking not only for the appropriate hardware and software, but also for the appropriate training and competent consulting. Therefore, ABB has started a cooperation with state-approved experts (in accordance with BImSchG §29a) from Infraserv Wiesbaden Technik for offering complete safety management solutions.
A comprehensive SIL determination package results from this cooperation, including:

A large portfolio of SIL-classified devices comprising pressure, temperature and flow measurement equipment, actuators and positioners, and SIL-classified controllers of the 800xA system.
Installation and licensing of the TRAC software tool on site with subsequent customer training.
Consulting for and identification of the individual safety instrumented systems (SIS).
Active support for the risk assessment and design of safety instrumented systems, on request with subsequent acceptance by an expert.

With the Council Directive 96/82/EC (Seveso II Directive) the European Community created the legal basis for the operation of plants with major accident hazard. The Incident Regulation in the Act for the Protection against Immissions (12. BImSchV) as of April 26, 2000 is the German equivalent of the directive 96/82/EC.

For the design of safety-related protective systems, the Incident Regulation referred until July 31, 2004 to DIN V 19250 and DIN 19251 defining requirement classes AK 1 – 8. On August 1, 2004, these standards were replaced with DIN EN 61508 and DIN EN 61511, which are the German equivalents to IEC 61508 / IEC61511.
They define four safety integrity levels (SIL1 to SIL4) with given measures for the risk management of plant parts with which the field devices and the actuators and positioners must comply.

After some initial hesitation to apply the new standards to the design of instrument-based protective systems, there has been a tremendous increase in requests referring to these items within the last months.
Although customers mainly asked for single SIL-certified devices in the first two quarters of 2004, demands for assistance in effecting risk assessments and calculating protective equipment have considerably increased since that time.
For this reason, the VDI / VDE regulation 2180, which is currently the standard guideline for the design of safety-related protective equipment, will be updated and adapted to the new standard IEC 61511-1.

Contact:
Bernd Hassenpflug
ABB Automation Products GmbH
Borsigstr. 2
D - 63755 Alzenau

Tel.: +49 (0) 6023 / 923 - 129
Fax: +49 (0) 6023 / 923 - 122
E-Mail: bernd.hassenpflug@de.abb.com