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Hello everyone, I have a troublesome issue and would like to ask for your advice on how to deal with it. I’m not sure what others do in such situations. Our factory is a petrochemical plant. During a previous inspection by the Safety Supervision Bureau, one corrective action was recommended. Specifically, it was found that the three-out-of-two measurement signals of the interlock protection system were not connected to three separate input cards, which does not comply with the \"Design Code for Safety Instrumented Systems in Petrochemical Industries\" (GB50770-2013) and the \"Guidelines for Identifying and Addressing Potential Hazards in Chemical Enterprises\" (Safety Supervision General Administration Order No. 103 [2012]). The actual situation in our factory is that a three-out-of-two process signal is used, but the signal is connected to a single input card. After reviewing the aforementioned standards and implementation guidelines, the details are as follows: 1) In the \"Code for Design of Safety Instrumented Systems in Petrochemical Industries\" (GB50770-2013), the relevant provision is: 8.5.2 Signals from multiple transmitters that monitor the same process variable should be connected to different input cards. (Explanation of the term “yi”: it indicates that a certain degree of flexibility is allowed; one should first do this when conditions permit.) 2) In the **Guidelines for the Identification and Rectification of Hazards in Chemical Enterprises** (Safety Supervision Administration Order No. 3 [2012] 103), the relevant provisions state as follows: Under item 2.2 of the “Instrumentation Hazard Identification Form” attached to these guidelines, under the category of “Instrumentation System Configuration,” it is specified that **chemical manufacturing enterprises shall configure process control, safety instrumentation, and interlock systems in accordance with relevant standards, and shall also meet the requirements of the Code for Design of Safety Instrumented Systems in Petrochemical Industries, SH3018-2003. Process interfaces: Sensors and final actuator devices connected to input/output cards shall be designed to be fail-safe.** ; Fieldbus communication should not be used ; If a two-out-of-three process signal is used, it should be connected to three different input cards. If the implementation guidelines (high standards) are followed, corrective actions are necessary. However, carrying out such corrections is no easy task – it requires money and time, as well as downtime for the work to be done. The key issue is that our factory was built in 2005, and at that time such requirements did not seem to exist. Moreover, we use Honeywell ESD and Rosemount transmitters; Honeywell’s ESD controllers utilize three circuits for decision-making, ensuring the reliability of the output signals, which already makes them quite reliable. I wonder if there are any other solutions to report to the Safety Supervision Bureau – are there any other options, such as finding a qualified design firm or inspection company (? ) Conduct a risk assessment or use other methods, but it’s not clear whether the safety supervision agency will accept the assessment results; it’s really troublesome. First, thank you all.
This post was last edited by jcicwht on 2016-3-16 08:06. Improvements are needed to meet the requirements of current **relevant regulations; for example, regarding the design of control rooms, windows used to be allowed on the side facing the equipment, but this is no longer permitted under the new regulations. Therefore, it is now necessary to carry out modifications in accordance with the new rules and seal off those windows. Regarding the situation you mentioned, it can be responded to by making improvements once the device is shut down, but it cannot be changed otherwise.
The requirement is certainly valid – those three points are connected to the same card. If that card fails, those three points will become BAD data. So how can we make a judgment? After making such improvements, a lot of money will be required. It’s already good enough that there is no requirement to replace transmitters and final control components such as solenoid valves with those that are SIL-certified. The fact that some systems use a single motherboard with three fault-tolerant CPUs is a source of risk, and this is also the reason given by other systems
I admire how thorough this safety supervision agency is in its inspections. Generally, to save costs, single-card configurations are used, although each channel employs 3 circuit votings. Are there any redundant slots? If so, does that count as an improvement?
I can only say that everything done outside the specifications is problematic.
I took a quick look and saw that there are extra card slots in the cabinet, but for Honeywell products, modifying it to meet these requirements would cost too much. These days, things are tough in every industry, and no one wants to spend that kind of money. What the manager is asking is whether there are any other ways to deal with this issue besides modification; modification is only the last resort. .
Section 6.4.3 of the \"SH3018-2003T Code for Design of Safety Instrumented Systems in Petrochemical Industries\" has already stipulated this
Everyone is trying to save money these days. If it’s connected to three different cards, it becomes quite troublesome to match the wires during system integration. We faced the same issue when we were working on this; later on, we changed some of the signals and other components, but for some parts it was necessary to make major adjustments, so those weren’t changed – only some of them were altered
This safety supervision agency is even more expert than experts. . . .
In a typical SIS system, there isn’t just one DI card, right? In fact, it’s possible to swap the cables from other cards with those on the card that contains the existing three-out-of-two interlock signals; this doesn’t require much work – it simply involves replacing some cross-card cables and adjusting the channel assignments in the configuration, which is not difficult. Of course, parking handling is a must; you may also need to provide wiring diagrams.