SAFETY INSTRUMENTATION AND INTEGRATED CONTROL SYSTEMS

Modern automation systems have evolved into an Integrated Control and Safety System consisting of a distributed system with control and safety functionality. a Safety Instrumented System (SIS) is only as strong as its weakest link, and companies around the globe are awakening to the fact that providing a safe working environment is no longer a judgment call by management, but it is strictly required. Improper choices of equipment, poor design, faulty hardware or software configuration, improper installation, flawed testing procedures and inadequate operator training each can contribute to excessive cost, inadequate safety or excessive nuisance failures.

PIARAZ Automation Services Team can help you design the proper SIS system. Our in-depth, cross-divisional knowledge of field devices, logic solvers and final control devices, as well as our ability to properly integrate them into a safe and reliable system, makes us a unique resource in helping you design and implementation of your SIS system.

Our Automation Engineering Services can help you modify your process safety management programs to address SIS, such as additions to process safety information, process hazards analysis, operating procedures, and mechanical integrity. We can also help to establish SIS Safety Requirements Specifications and assist in developing procedures for SIS installation, commissioning, testing, operation, maintenance and change reviews.

 How PIARAZ Can Help:

• Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) - Even a single process plant accident can often be disastrous and result in multiple fatalities and significant financial losses.  A Safety Instrumented System is designed to prevent high risk and high impact consequences.  Danger of safety complacency during operations is a common industry challenge and is compounded by the confusion around technology choices, conflicting vendor stories and differing interpretations about what a dedicated safety system should do.  PIARAZ can lead this whole effort and guide you through the design lifecycle steps: Analysis (Risk Analysis, SIF Identification, SIL determination), Realization (Design, Installation, Commissioning) and Operation (Operation, Maintenance, Modification). From the sensor, to your logic solver and back to your actuation devices, your safety loops are safe with PIARAZ.   PIARAZ team of professionals have experience implementing successful Emergency Shutdown Systems (ESD), Burner Management Systems (BMS), and Fire and Gas Systems (F&G).

• Process Control Systems (PCS) -Tighter profit margins and tighter performance limits mean less acceptance for tolerating inefficient processes and inefficient operations, so control systems and their performance continue to be subject to much more careful scrutiny than in the past. Achieving fewer process steps, less intermediate storage and less capacity within processing units add up to plants with much livelier performance.  Changing equipment or hardware is expensive.  PIARAZ team with knowledge in instrumentation, field networks, controllers, redundant control network and system console (engineering, operator and application workstations) will ensure the enhanced control strategy fits your automation objectives.  While designing or integrating PCS systems based on PLC, DCS, SCADA, PIARAZ team uses a methodical approach with consideration to impact on safety, process, equipment, environment, people and cyber security at each major decision point.

• Integrated Control and Safety Systems -New digital technology now makes it feasible to integrate process control and safety instrumented functions within a common automation infrastructure.  While this can provide productivity and asset management benefits, if not done correctly, it can also compromise the safety and security of an industrial operation.  This makes it critically important for process industry users to understand where to draw the line. For example, to share field devices successfully, it is vital to understand the process under control - not just the safety equipment or the electronics, but the process areas that are being controlled. One must understand the process and how the devices are used, and understand how they fail and what will happen if they fail. Cyber security’s importance cannot be underestimated, particularly for safety and security of industrial processes.

• Alarm Management -Today, when alarms are often viewed as “free”, a single I/O point may be configured to activate multiple alarms.  As a result, managing these alarms is becoming an increasingly important role of the process plant operator who must interact seamlessly with the DCS. PIARAZ focuses on balancing the function of the control system, which is to maintain the process within the target range of performance and the operator whose job it is to intervene to keep the process within its normal performance range and minimizing nuisance alarms.