Process Safety
Process Safety covers the prevention of fire, explosion and chemical leakages. No business that is involved in the handling of potentially hazardous substances can afford to ignore Process Safety. Failures in this field will at best lead to reputational damage and a loss of shareholder confidence, and at worst to serious injury or death, and to environmental pollution.
SIL and Risk Reduction
The two EU directives that comprise what is generally known as ATEX are 99/92/EC and 94/9/EC. Between them, they cover health and safety of workers, and protective systems, in explosive environments.
Additionally, for applications in the UK, any location in which people are working and where gas, flammable vapours or dust might be found falls under the DESEAR Regulations (The Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2002).
IES has teams of engineers who are competent and qualified in all aspects of ATEX and DESEAR..
SIL and Risk Reduction
The Safety Integrity Level is judged on functional safety standards, and is based on the International Electrotechnical Commission’s four levels of safety integrity, with 1 being the least dependable, and 4 the best. Many factors are taken into account when the IEC 61508 standard is applied, including development process and life cycle management.
Experts at Hand
IES engineers are qualified and experienced when it comes to Process Safety Management, and it is not surprising that their clients’ own engineering teams welcome them with open arms. Experts are happiest when dealing with other experts; they speak the same language, they understand the priorities, and they can be confident in handing over work that lies outside their own comfort zones.
IES engineers do not dictate processes and controls; rather, they consider the system as it is running, check for weaknesses and potential dangers, and find ways of supporting and strengthening the safety aspects whilst minimising disruption to the manufacturing process. They are familiar with the requirements of IEC 61508, and will find ways of reaching compliance levels in a timely and cost-effective manner.
IEC 61508
The concept of the standard is fairly simple.
- An engineering process called the safety life cycle is defined based on best practices in order to discover and eliminate design errors and omissions.
- A probabilistic failure approach to account for the safety impact of device failures.
In most cases, however, putting those two requirements into practice without running into operational difficulties and serious financial outlay requires specialised expertise which, whilst not beyond the grasp of competent engineers, could well place unreasonable demands upon their capabilities and the time they can afford to spend in study. The most cost-effective method of handling the procedure is to bring in people who already know. This is why IES is regarded by its clients as an essential partner where upgrades, new designs, testing, implementation, management and eventual decommissioning are concerned.
IES engineers have seen it all before, in organisations dealing with everything from food production to gas refineries, from glass to steel.
Benefits of Compliance
Safety compliance either to IEC 61508 or to standards required by other regulatory bodies confers benefits beyond those of complying with the law. Organisations that give proper consideration to safety find their employees work with confidence, and therefore there are increases in productivity. When a process runs well and smoothly, as it must in order to comply, quality improves, delay and disruption is eliminated or at least minimised, and costs are reduced.
A company with a clear policy on safety will improve its reputation, its shareholder value will improve, and there will be a decrease in staff turnover.
Process Safety is about more than safety alone, as IES can confirm.