Yokogawa Releases Enhanced Version of ProSafe-RS Safety Instrumented System

Tokyo, Japan - September 27, 2016

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it will be releasing ProSafe^®-RS R4.02.00 on September 28. With this latest release of the ProSafe^®-RS safety instrumented system, a number of functional safety management (FSM) related functions have been added to the Automation Design Suite (AD Suite) engineering environment for ProSafe-RS that will support our customers in ensuring safety throughout the plant lifecycle.

Development Background

In energy and basic materials industries such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, and chemicals, various safety measures must be taken to prevent incidents and to protect the environment. One such measure is the introduction of safety instrumented systems, which can safely initiate an emergency plant shutdown if a critical failure is detected.

The initiating causes of such incidents have been investigated by regulatory bodies that have identified poor clarity in requirements definition and communication as the major contributing factor. Further to this, increased attention has been paid to the role that FSM plays throughout the plant operational lifecycle in keeping the risks of unsafe practices or failures within an acceptable range. Interest among our customers has thus been rising in ensuring the safety of their plants by obtaining compliance with the IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 international standards*1 on functional safety. However, FSM is a complex subject requiring a diversity of expertise to carry out tasks such as deciding policies, creating management systems, drawing up plans, managing their execution, and training personnel. To help customers accurately define, test, and understand their systems and to simplify the task of ensuring that a system remains in compliance with the IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 functional safety standards during the engineering phase and while in operation, Yokogawa has added new functions to AD Suite.

Enhancements

1. Enhanced support for FSM planning and implementation
   Yokogawa has added an FSM tool to AD Suite that facilitates the creation of a management framework, the drawing up of working plans, and the management of implementation. With this tool, users of AD Suite can easily draw up organization charts, workflows, and check sheets. This reduces workload and helps to ensure that FSM is carried out correctly, thus reducing the likelihood that non-compliant activities will pose a risk to plant and personnel.

   
   An example of Safety Lifecycle Management Support Function (FSM support)

2. Enhanced support for hand-over of FSM information
   To ensure the proper execution of FSM over the entire plant lifecycle, a system is needed that can help those in charge of operations and maintenance ensure that information is handed over at shift changes. All software created with AD Suite is managed in a database. With this new function, AD Suite is now also able to collectively manage all engineering information such as FSM-related organization charts and workflows, as well as test scripts and results. This function simplifies master management and helps to prevent problems caused when different groups of personnel are not referring to the same version of information. All changes within the software environment require a configuration change notification and are logged and readily visible to all users. A fully up-to-date version of any document is always available. This helps to ensure that shift changes go smoothly.
3. Enhanced support for a better understanding of safety instrumented systems engineering and operation
   AD Suite now supports the use of high-level engineering and definition languages such as cause & effect matrix and state/transition diagrams for the input and output of specifications that are based on customer requirements and converted into executable code for the configuration of ProSafe-RS 4.02 control logic. By using the cause & effect matrix and the state/transition diagram, users can simulate how the safety instrumented system will operate in an emergency. With this function, our customers can identify and soon correct problems in the safety requirement specification that are caused by factors such as a failure to consider certain user requirements. To help meet the IEC 61151 requirement for operators to have an understanding of plant safety instrumented functions, this function can also be used to provide training in safety instrumentation.

   
   An example of Safety Lifecycle Management Support Function (Simulator)

The functions described above have been achieved using iDefine for ProSafe-RS, an FSM tool developed by Trinity Integrated Systems*2. iDefine for ProSafe-RS can be purchased only from Yokogawa.

Major Target Markets and Applications

FSM support with emergency shutdown systems (ESD), burner management systems (BMS), and fire and gas systems (FGS) used in process industries such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, chemicals, electric power, pharmaceuticals, and iron and steel

About ProSafe-RS

Released in February 2005, the ProSafe-RS safety instrumented system helps prevent accidents by detecting abnormal conditions in plant operations and initiating emergency actions such as a plant shutdown. An independent certification body has certified that ProSafe-RS conforms to the IEC 61508 international safety standard and can be used in SIL3*3 applications. Unlike conventional safety instrumented systems and distributed control systems, which are regarded as having different roles and functions and operate separately, the operation of ProSafe-RS and the CENTUM integrated control system can be fully integrated. ProSafe-RS is highly regarded by users and has been installed in more than 2,000 projects worldwide in the 11 years since its release.

*1 IEC 61508 is a standard for the functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems that was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). IEC 61511 is based on the IEC 61508 standard and concerns the safety instrumented systems used in the process industry sector.

*2 A UK-based controls and safety systems company with a software toolset allowing transformation of automation data into meaningful, useful and actionable information

*3 Established by the IEC, a safety integrity level (SIL) indicates the relative level of risk provided by a safety function. SILs 1 through 4 are defined by IEC 61508. At SIL3, the risk factor for a plant where safety measures are not in place is in a range between 1/1,000 and 1/10,000. At SIL4, the risk factor is in a range between 1/10,000 and 1/100,000.

 

About Yokogawa

Yokogawa's global network of 92 companies spans 59 countries. Founded in 1915, the US$3.7 billion company engages in cutting-edge research and innovation. Yokogawa is active in the industrial automation and control (IA), test and measurement, and aviation and other businesses segments. The IA segment plays a vital role in a wide range of industries including oil, chemicals, natural gas, power, iron and steel, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, and food. For more information about Yokogawa, please visit www.yokogawa.com.

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