VE has internally organized a training course on the following topic: IEC 61511 – Functional Safety – Safety Instrumented Systems for Process Industry and SIL. IEC 61511 is a technical standard that ensure the safety of an industrial process through the use of instrumentation system (Safety Instrumented Systems). Purpose of the course was to improve and deepen the knowledge of the last issue of the standard.

Most important subjects analyzed were relevant to the relations occurring between the standard and the EU directives and to the activities relevant to the Functional Safety Lifecycle, from hazard and risk assessment, up to maintenance and decommissioning.

Fired Heaters present significant safety risks with potentially serious consequences, especially linked to accumulated fuel or a leak of combustible process fluid. Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) for protective action shall be properly designed, maintained and tested in order to inhibit startup when unsafe conditions exist and initiate a safe state when unsafe conditions arise. Functional Safety Lifecycle efficient implementation is particularly important with Turn-Key projects, where all the heater relevant SIFs elements (instrumentation, BMS system, valves) are engineered and supplied by VE.