EcoStruxure™ Triconex Safety Systems

How digital transformation can reduce costs, optimize efficiency, and improve conservation in water and wastewater processing

The latest edition of IEC61511 Edition 2 Clause 16 puts a new emphasis on operating companies to prove and demonstrate that the safety instrumented systems they designed to reduce the risk to an acceptable level are operating as designed and intended. This activity is often a manual exercise which is time consuming and prone to error. This paper looks at how software applications can provide an automated solution delivering efficiency and productivity gains.

Safety Instrumented Systems are a vital layer of protection and often form the last line of defense between you and a potential incident. Typically these systems are designed to mitigate process risks within the boundary of the operating asset. However the threats are no longer contained within the walls of the operating asset and are now subject to “digital” threats caused by malicious attacks from outside of the boundary. This paper looks at the some of the practical means and mechanisms available to maximize the resilience and minimize the vulnerabilities of your EcoStruxure Triconex Safety Systems.

While best practice has leaned toward keeping control and safety isolated from each other, recent enterprise data integration and cost control initiatives are providing incentive to achieve some level of integration. This paper describes three basic integration models, including an “interfaced” approach, in which separate control and safety communicate via a custom built software bridge; an “integrated but separate” approach, in which the disparate systems sit on the same network, but share information only across isolated network channels; and a “common” approach, in which both control and safety systems share a common operating system. The authors then compare the three approaches according to compliance with safety standards and cost efficiencies.

The Food and Beverage Industry has historically used historian-based technology to optimize and troubleshoot production processes by looking at time-series-based process variable trends. During the same time, good manufacturing practices (GMPs) have largely relied on using paper-based standard operating procedures and manual data collection to manage quality and production activities. By adding electronic workflow management capability, GMPs, regulatory requirements, and electronic forms can replace paper-based standard operating procedures and deliver an electronic system of record that embeds all manufacturing rules, exceptions, and escalation processes.

The new ANSI/ISA S84 .01 and international standard IEC-61508 have placed great emphasis on safety instrumented systems (SIS) for process industries . These new standards set requirements for performance (safety integrity level, or SIL), design, and maintenance.