INSTRUMENTATION/COMPUTING/CONTROL 61
The IEC 61511 revision: functional safety comes of age
The independent Safety Users Group has drawn together industry experts in a discussion about the revisions currently being made to IEC 615111. The resulting video offers practical insights into the proposals and is available free online. Sean Ottewell reports.
El grupo independiente de usuarios Safety Users Group se ha aliado con los expertos de la industria para debatir sobre las revisiones que se están llevando a cabo actualmente sobre la norma IEC 615111. El video obtenido ofrece una mirada introspectiva de las propuestas y se puede obtener de manera gratuita on-line. Sean Ottewell informa.
Die unabhängige Vereinigung “Safety Users Group” hat Industriefachleute zu einer Diskussion über die Änderungen zusammengerufen, die gegenwärtig an der IEC-Norm 615111 vorgenommen werden. Das Ergebnis ist ein Video mit praxisbezogenen Erkenntnissen über die Vorschläge und steht online zum kostenlosen Abruf zur Verfügung. Ein Bericht von Sean Ottewell.
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n light of revisions being made to IEC 61511, the independent Safety Users Group (SUG) has conducted an unprecedented round table discussion with members of the IEC 61511 standard committee to explore the maintenance of the functional safety standard and address common misconceptions. In the resulting video, which is free online
from the SUG website (see below), industrial safety trend setters from Shell Europe and DuPont USA are joined by experts from the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Emerson Process Management and IEC 61511 committee chairman Victor Maggioli to share their practical experience of the standard and its adoption in the chemical process, oil refining, tank storage and offshore industries. Didier Turcinovic of the Safety Users Group says: “The safety community needs to share knowledge and ideas and the involvement of end users such as Shell, manufacturers such as Emerson Process Management and functional safety experts is essential to develop standards like IEC 61511 that meet
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Fig. 1. In recent years, adoption of IEC 61511 has accelerated to a point where it is widely accepted as the state-of-the-art on the plant.
their specific demands.” The IEC 61511 standard was first published in 2004 in order to provide specific guidance on the application of the IEC 61508 functional safety framework in the process industry. Trends in sustainable development, operational excellence (OP-EX) and quality control have driven growing interest in the standard. In recent years, the recommendations from
the Texas City oil refinery and Buncefield oil storage and transfer depot incident reports have accelerated the adoption of IEC 61511 to a point where it is widely accepted as the state of the art (Fig. 1).
IEC 61511 acceptance and adoption varies
around the World, but in the UK the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regards it as close to law. The HSE’s IEC 61511 committee member Simon Brown explained: “IEC 61511
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