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Latest 21 news articles
What is Potentially Explosive Atmosphere Certification and why you may need it!
The Explosive Atmospheres Directive (ATEX 137) is a European Union Directive which requires employers to protect workers from the risk of explosive atmospheres. The ATEX Directive was ratified and its implementation mandatory from the 1st of July 2003 and was subject to various stages of implementation during the following three years and finally came into force for all workplaces on 30 June 2006. Despite the fact that the ATEX Directive has been in force for many years it is evident that there...
Confined Space Entry & Compliance
Confined space entry always presents a potential hazard and unnecessary accidents can be avoided by having a robust procedure in place. It is imperative to ensure that workers are fully trained and properly equipped to work in these types of environments and an essential component of the safety equipment is a portable gas detector. Recognise the hazards A confined space is defined by three factors. The space must be large enough for a worker to enter. Secondly, the space cannot be designed fo...
Benefits of HART Communication-Enabled Gas and Flame Detectors
Catastrophic results can occur when a fire or a flammable/toxic gas release goes undetected in any petrochemical facility. For early warning and prompt hazard mitigation, flame detectors and gas detectors are essential tools. Clear, usable, diagnostic information from these detection instruments is extremely valuable in ensuring the devices are properly maintained, tested, and poised to protect the people, equipment, and facility in the event of an unexpected release of flammable hydrocarbons....
Cooling Equipment for Hazardous Areas
Where the temperature of plant cooling water cannot be guaranteed and, faced with the inevitable cost of treating this water before disposal, refiners and fuel suppliers are looking for alternative ways of cooling analysers and analytical systems used for the determination of on spec products required to meet national standards such as ASTM, ISO and EN. This article looks at the importance of selecting the right type of closed loop chillers, compact air conditioning units and large HVAC systems...
High Performance Industrial Flame Detection
Optical flame detection has progressed to meet the ever-growing demands for maximum reliability, availability and minimal false alarm events and is widely employed in many high risk industries, such as those in oil & gas (onshore & offshore), petrochemicals, hazardous material handling and storage, etc., to protect both high-value plant and personnel. Flame Detectors are the favored solution for high risk areas and outdoors where smoke and heat detectors are not effective. Unlike smok...
Hazardous Substances in the Offshore Industry
The offshore industry operates in some of the most dangerous environments in the world. Hazards are expected in this environment and must be controlled.
Can Gas Detection Really Save You Time and Money?
Gas detection has come a long way since its inception nearly 60 years ago. Technology has permitted the emergence of a variety of sensing principles and has also enabled devices to become more user-friendly, more functional, easier to maintain and safer. Competition in the market place, born out of the mass commerciality of today’s global market, has helped to drive down the cost of gas detection, providing customers with more benefits for their money. But what does this really mean in...
Aspects of ATEX and IECEx
READING THE (ATEX) INSTRUCTIONS A question we regularly get asked at Baseefa, and one which directly affects both manufacturers and installers of Ex Equipment, is about the permissible form in which the manufacturer may pass instructions to customers. First of all, let me emphasise that no Notified Body is in a position to give a legal interpretation of the ATEX Directive, or of any other directive. Therefore, in what follows, I am trying to present information that I believe is already, at...
Danger and Detection of Hydrogen Sulphide Gas in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production
A rig worker smells rotten eggs near the well head, rubs his itchy eyes as he investigates the frosty pipe connections. After a few moments, he believes all is fine as he no longer smells the tell-tale hydrogen sulphide odour. In this scenario, we can only hope the worker recognises the danger and quickly leaves the site. Oil fields, especially mature ones, can produce hydrogen sulphide gas ? deadly at relatively low concentrations. On average, a person takes 12 breaths per minute, so if a hy...
Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detection
Over the past several years there has been a quiet revolution in the art of gas detection with the steady introduction of a new technology to complement the existing methods of detecting gases. Conventional flammable gas detectors, either catalytic point, Infra red point or Infra red beam, all rely on two actions before they trip in to alarm, firstly, the gas leak cloud needs to actually reach and encompass the sensor or pass through the beam, secondly the gas concentration of the cloud has t...
WirelessHART™: The Industrial Wireless Standard
Wireless is unleashing the next wave of industry transformation due to its inherent flexibility, scaleability, and efficiency for improvement of distributed sensing and control systems. Proprietary wireless transmitters have existed in plants for many years but always focused on point-to-point cable-replacement applications. Now wireless networking is being realised in industrial process control since WirelessHART™, designed by the leading suppliers of instrumentation for the process control...
Dealing with the ATEX Directive - Negotiating the Maze of National and International Rules and Regulations can Baffle a Product Manager.
One of the new minefields for a product manager is the mandatory European Community (EC) Harmonised Safety Compliance Directives and Standards, with the most current being ATEX directive 94/9/EC. ATEX stands for “Atmosphere Explosives” (said in French) and it is the law in the EU since July of 2003.
Improving Safety Through Behavior and Gas Exposure Tracking
The writing of this article follows on the heels of a meeting between the author and the Chief Deputy Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The purpose of that meeting was to investigate and discuss the circumstances of a fatal Pennsylvania mining accident. The Attorney General’s office was desperately trying to determine an answer to the question of why the portable gas monitor, that was carried by the victim and designed to detect the methane gas that was inadvertently ignit...
Meeting Safety Requirements: ‘Certified SIL Capable’
Life-saving safety equipment is becoming increasingly important in a wider cross-section of companies. So, at the same time, there is a growing trend to adopt best practices for the management of safety systems. Now industrial clients are looking for new design or upgrades to a plant to be in line with the Safety Instrumented System (SIS) standards of IEC61508* in addition to fire and gas system performance approvals. It is important that safety engineers and owners consider the fundamental e...
Safety Integrity Levels - Applying Them To Your Process and Plant
The global importance of SIL (Safety Integrity Levels) has grown substantially in the oil/gas, petrochemical and other process industries over the last 10 years. However, for many end users, systems integrators, and product vendors, SIL is often misinterpreted and incorrectly implemented. This problem leads to confusion and difficulties in selecting the plant instrumentation and automation components necessary to operate a plant and its processes safely.
How to Determine the Safety Integrity Level (SIL) of a Safety System
Functional safety is part of the overall safety that depends on a Safety Instrumented System (SIS), made up of equipment such as Fire & Gas Detection Systems that execute Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF). A safety function is designed to ensure or maintain a safety state of the SIS when a dangerous event occurs. Each safety function has a safety integrity level (SIL). The safety integrity level is the probability for the system to execute the safety functions required in all specified...
Cumulative Exposure to Toxic Gases
As Health and Safety legislation tightens up world-wide, David Riddle, Business Development Manager at Crowcon Detection Instruments discusses the requirements of personal gas detectors in monitoring cumulative toxic gas exposure. Toxic gases have an effect on the human body and brain cumulatively. It is possible that, after hourly, daily or weekly exposure to relatively low levels of gas, illness or injury may become apparent. It is vital, therefore to understand time based exposure of wor...
ATEX – Keeping on the Ball
It is now almost a year since the compulsory full application of the ATEX “User” Directive (199/92/EC) throughout the European Economic Area and it is worth reviewing how things are progressing and looking at developments in the international field.
Innovation in Personal Gas Detection
concentration. The fence electrode is a third electrode placed between the sensing and reference electrode to mitigate the effects of humidity. Background current created by moisture is absorbed by the fence electrode. With more efficient control of background interference, the stability and reproducibility of the PID readings has become more reliable.
Pedigree ensures reliability in automation
As confidence in the new technology grew and the tremendous advantages and flexibility of programmability became clear, the industry started to look to the regulators for some guidance on how these systems should be used, especially for safety applications. The regulations have developed from that point to date where IEC 61508 extends the standard requirements beyond programmable electronic systems to include the complete control loop. It includes field equipment and establishes fundament...
ATEX Reviewed
As this article is being published, we are in the closing stages of the interim application of the ATEX Directives. By 1 July 2006, all plants within Europe should be able to demonstrate full compliance with the requirements of 1999/92/EC as adopted in each member state. In the UK this is the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR).