Exida, an accredited global functional safety certification company, has issued a functional safety certification per the IEC 61508 and several application standards for the Emerson Process Management DeltaV CHARMS SIS product line.

“The DeltaV CHARMS SIS is an advanced fault tolerant architecture with great flexibility,” says Dr. William Goble, exida Principal Engineer. “It is also the first design I have seen with cybersecurity considered in the design.”

“Exida demands a high level of quality and care in both processes and documentation,” says Dave Denison, Emerson Project Manager. “We selected them due to their technical expertise in functional safety.”

“Exida is the only Certification Body that covers both functional safety and cybersecurity,” added Keith Bellville, Emerson Product Marketing Manager. “The exida certification will give our customers additional confidence in our products.”

The Fieldbus Foundation today announced the release of the latest version of its FOUNDATION™ for Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF) Interoperability Test Kit (ITK). This powerful test solution has been updated with new test cases to verify the functionality of H1 (31.25 bit/s) fieldbus devices based on the current FOUNDATION for SIF technical specifications, including the newly introduced H1 dual-mode device capability employing powerful field diagnostics.

FOUNDATION for SIF ITK 1.2 is an excellent tool for troubleshooting and debugging fieldbus instruments, and provides all hardware and software required to ensure a manufacturer's complete device interoperability as specified by the Fieldbus Foundation's official registration testing procedure. By using the test kit, device developers can run tests identical to those used by the foundation before submitting their device for registration.

Fieldbus Foundation Director-Fieldbus Products Stephen Mitschke said, "The updated FOUNDATION for SIF ITK verifies advanced functionality such as the new dual-mode H1 device capability allowing automation suppliers to bring new safety products to market without having to design two entirely different devices. Developers can implement H1 instruments with SIF features activated or de-activated. More importantly, this means that plants will only have to stock one type of instrument that can be used as either a process device or a safety device."

National Instruments today announced the Tool Qualification Kit for NI TestStand to help meet functional safety standards, such as RTCA DO-178B/C, IEC 62304 and ISO 26262, in numerous industries that need qualified tools to verify safety requirements for electronic systems. The kit, developed by CertTech LLC, an NI Alliance Partner, defines the functional requirements NI TestStand meets, creates a set of tests to demonstrate compliance with the requirements and provides extensive documentation to show compliance in accordance with functional safety standards.

An FAA representative formally reviewed the kit to verify compliance with the DO-178B/C guidelines and concluded: “Findings in the FAA Designated Engineering Representative’s (DER) report confirmed that all objectives of DO-178B Section 12.2, FAA Order 8110.49 Section 9, and DO-330 Annex A have been successfully achieved and in many cases exceeded.”

Rather than developing and maintaining a custom test executive, engineers can use NI TestStand, a ready-to-run COTS test management software solution, to quickly develop automated test and validation systems. The Tool Qualification Kit for NI TestStand, available on the LabVIEW Tools Network, drastically reduces the time it takes to certify each project by introducing a testing methodology that allows engineers to use qualified COTS tools instead of performing a manual qualification on custom tools.

Additional Resources

· Product: http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/211215/

· Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouddl0zml9k&feature=plcp/

· Tutorial: http://www.ni.com/white-paper/13671/en

The Siemens Industry Automation Division now presents Sirius 3SK1, a flexible and modular range of safety relays. The component portfolio has been greatly reduced compared to its predecessor, thus simplifying selection and use. For example, different basic units are no longer required for mechanical and electronic sensors. 3SK1 is part of Siemens' Safety Integrated concept. Safety Integrated was devised to make engineering much simpler and to increase the availability of automation systems. This concept cuts the time required to implement new machines and plants and to adapt them to new requirements.

Siemens is now offering the new Sirius 3SK1 safety relays for monitoring and control systems with simple safety requirements, such as emergency stop or protective door monitoring. The product range takes the form of a clearly structured modular system so that plant operators can quickly, simply and economically assemble an appropriate and safe configuration. The Standard and Advanced basic units are available with relay or semiconductor outputs. This means that Sirius 3SK1 is able to efficiently cover every kind of application situation. The system portfolio is rounded off by modules with additional connections for actuators or sensors and a power supply.

The Standard basic units are characterized by their simple handling and variable functionality. Both mechanical and electronic sensors can be connected to the safety relay by means of screw-type or spring-loaded terminals. DIP switches on the front of the enclosure can be used for parameter assignment so there is no need for software. Should there not be enough connections for actuators on the Standard basic unit, the user can flexibly connect additional output expansions from the modular system.

The Advanced basic units feature all the product characteristics of the Standard version and not only allow the addition of modules with output expansions, but also of modules with input expansions for additional sensors. Another advantage of the Advanced basic unit: using device connectors developed by Siemens, the basic units and expansion modules can be quickly and simply plugged on without laborious manual wiring. That means there is no chance of any wiring errors occurring and commissioning is speeded up. Siemens offers a version with a rotary encoder switch for applications that require a delayed safe disconnection of actuators. There is also a Mini version of the Advanced basic unit. At just 17.5 mm wide, the Mini is ideal for use in a confined space.

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