Safety Instrumented Systems – FS Technician

Part 1 is intended to give participants an understanding of Functional Safety, hazards and related risk in line with the international IEC 61511 standards and the regulatory environment. The ALARP principle will be explained and they will undertake a basic process risk assessment and be shown the relationship between Safety Integrity Level (SIL) and risk reduction. The concepts of layers of protection, including role of Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) in reducing process related risk, will be explained. The basic concepts of SIS subsystem design will be discussed to give an appreciation of how this is related to the SIL. Part 1 will then cover the requirements for installation and commissioning of SIS including ‘Permit to Work’.

Content:

• An Introduction to Functional Safety and the Safety Lifecycle.
• A brief overview of the IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 standards.
• The concept of process related hazards and associated risks.
• Achieving risk reduction in line with ALARP principles.
• An overview of the approaches and objectives of risk assessment.
• A risk assessment exercise.
• The layers of protection concept.
• The role of Safety Instrumented Systems in risk reduction.
• The basic concepts of SIS subsystem design.
• The importance of testing and maintenance in Functional Safety Management.
• SIS Installation, Commissioning and Safety Validation.
• Permit to Work.

Part 2 will discuss maintenance assurance and verification and setting performance standards to help control maintenance activities. Participants will be given a firm understanding of the good practice principles of testing techniques and procedures for the most common types of SIS subsystems in line with the international IEC 61511 standard. Part 2 will demonstrate how appropriate testing and maintenance is important for sustaining reliability, and fully explain the purpose of preventative and corrective maintenance in achieving this.

Content:

• Maintenance assurance and verification.
• Performance standards.
• Undertaking maintenance.
• Key performance indicators.
• Preventative maintenance.
• Importance of fully functional proof testing.
• Proof testing techniques for SIS, and associated operational constraints:
  • Proof testing practices for measurement subsystems;
  • Proof testing practices for final elements;
  • Content of proof testing procedures;
  • Format of proof testing procedures;
  • Planning and scheduling;
  • Proof test records.
• Shutdown analysis recording.
• Importance of maintenance.
• Partial closure testing of valves
• Corrective maintenance.
• SIS repairs and spare parts holding.

Participants will learn about the different types of failures including systematic and random failures and how these are most appropriately dealt with. The effects of common cause and common mode failure on SIS reliability will be fully covered, including many of the issues and pitfalls associated with design, installation, testing, maintenance and human factors that impact upon common cause failures.

There will be discussion about smart devices, how they generate diagnostics and alarm information, and how this should be handled.

Participants will learn how testing and maintenance should be recorded by Failure Code Reporting techniques to enable better reliability analysis of hardware components used in SIS subsystems, and how an optimised testing and maintenance regime improves plant safety and availability.

The controls for SIS overrides, inhibits and bypasses will be fully explained along with the requirements for an override risk management system.

The final section of Part 3 will cover the importance of the Management of Change for modifications to SIS and the processes on which they operate.

Content:

• Failure types:
  • Systematic failures;
  • Random failures;
  • Dangerous failures;
  • Safe failures.
• Common cause and common mode failures.
• Diagnostics and alarms.
• Maintenance reporting and use of failure codes
• SIS override management:
  • Override control measures;
  • Compensating measures;
  • SIS override risk assessments.
  • SIS override authorisation.
  • Time out off service and escalation procesdures.
• Alarms and diagnostics.
• Modifications and management of change.
• Course summary.