This month’s presentation at the Vaal branch covered the basic principles and fundamentals of SIL. It included the common misconceptions about SIL, risks, accidents, processes, random and systemic failures amongst others. Risk is an integral part of our daily lives. Hazards are also present in our working environment. Thus it is important to identify anything that could pose a risk of death or injury and to eliminate any hazards at work emanating from production processes.
Jannie Claasens (l) from the Vaal Branch presents Jurie Weidemann from Pepperl+Fuchs with the SAIMC presenter’s certificate.
Standards applied to overcome these risks are based on proven principles:
• Statutory architectures.
• Exclusion of faults.
• Stipulation of single and multiple fault safety measures to implement a protective function.
An increasing number of programmable devices are now used when designing a plant, from a PLC to intelligent sensors. It is not possible to assess multiple fault safety measures in this form. Specific standards have therefore been devised so that the risk can be quantified, based on probability statements, and reliably reduced. This involves new concepts that require a more detailed explanation.
The abbreviation SIL refers to the safety integrity level and is a measurement of performance required for a safety-instrumented function.
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