Committee for 2017
It is with pleasure that the branch announces the results of the recent elections and welcomes both the newly-elected members as well as those re-elected from last year.
We would like to thank all members who put themselves forward for election. It is a somewhat thankless task, but the well-being of our branch depends on our leading members doing so, and we greatly appreciate the efforts and service offered by them.
Thanks also extend to outgoing members, Alan Docherty, JP Phala and Marita van den Berg for their contributions during 2016.
The following events are planned for 2017: golf day, site visits, technology evenings, presentation at VUT, visits to local high schools, high tea, industrial roadshow, control roadshow and the year-end function.
First Technology Evening of 2017
On Thursday, 2 February the Technology evening was hosted at Honeywell in Secunda. Divan Pretorius from Proconics presented the topic: ‘SIL: Common misconceptions and the importance of the maintenance phase.’
SIL is defined as a method of numerically expressing the amount of risk reduction required to keep identified risks to tolerable values. It is widely used in the petrochemical industry and is also being explored in various others. The most common misconception as highlighted by Divan is the fact that SIL is always associated with high costs when in actual fact the main purpose of SIL is to prevent financial losses, environmental damage and loss of life. Another misconception is that people think that SIL can be applied to a single piece of equipment, which is false. An entire loop consisting of a sensing element, control element and final element (e.g. a valve) is used to determine the SIL rating for a specific Safety Instrumented Function. It is also important to note that SIL 4 is only required for the nuclear industry.
According to statistics 36% of incidents involving control systems occur during the maintenance and operating phase. Therefore Divan highlighted a few solutions to improve the maintenance and operating phases of SIL loops:
• Ensure that the trip testing is not only regular but according to the safety manuals.
• Maintenance packages must be developed and handed over after the implementation of SIL loops.
• SIL awareness training needs to be conducted where SIL loops are implemented.
• Maintenance audits should be conducted on SIL loops to ensure maintenance plans have been followed as specified.
The branch thanks Divan for sharing an enlightening approach to SIL and its maintenance aspects.
All C&I personnel are welcome to attend the upcoming monthly Technology Evenings which are planned as follows: 2 March, 6 April, 11 May, 1 June, 6 July, 3 August, 7 September, 12 October and 2 November.
All presentations will earn CPD points for ECSA-registered persons and any enquiries can be directed to branch chairman Johan Maritz 082 856 3865, [email protected]
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