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 elements of Safety Instrumented Systems and how they will implement these elements. The safety requirements specification of any SIS to IEC61508 includes the target Safety Integrity Level (SIL) for defined Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF). In a fire and gas safety system, a SIF could be a gas or flame detector combined with the outputs to annunciate or to initiate mitigation systems.