SIS vendors should provide diagnostic tools with clear guidelines or recommendations for maintaining the system to maximize uptime in the context of plant operations.
There are new technologies that supposedly allow the user who is performing a SIL verification to take a greater credit in the SIL determination and reduce redundancy in field devices or reduce the overall requirements on the E/E/PES. The majority of these claims assume that the diagnostics available on modern day field devices (HART or Foundation Fieldbus) make those devices safer. While it is true that field device diagnostic are of great value for maintenance management purposes, they are not designed or implemented to make the devices safer or to offer the safety dashboard to enable plant personnel decision making. Please download the below white paper which discusses the importance of third party certification and SIL rating of SIS devices.
Complete the following form to view or download the whitepaper for this truth:
What is the importance of third party certification and SIL rating of SIS devices?
Abstract
Based on the growing number of safety certified devices or systems in the automation marketplace, these are the times of Functional Safety Certification, especially in the process industries. However as basic as it might sound, is there a "one-size-fits-all" certification process? Or how useful is that "certified equipment" for your application?
About the Author: Luis Duran, Triconex Brand Manager MBA and BSEE from Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela with over 15 years experience in different industrial automation disciplines, including design and implementation of Safety Shutdown System and Critical Controllers and BPCS, Process Modeling and Design Software and Advanced Process Control for Business Improvement in the Oil & Gas Downstream industry.