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The Fieldbus Foundation, at its 2008 General Assembly in Antwerp, Belgium, announced plans for Foundation for Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF) demonstrations at multiple end user sites around the world. Demonstrations of SIF technology will be conducted at Shell Global Solutions, Saudi Aramco, BP, andChevron.
The upcoming field demonstrations will promote adoption of Foundation SIF technology in the process industries. The project also includes development of SIF best practices and guidelines, as well as training and interoperability test tools for automation equipment manufacturers and end users. At the Shell demonstration in Amsterdam, planned for May 2008, engineers will construct a DCS-controlled demo rig with graphic panels showing safety devices and SIF functions, including an operator interface for Partial Stroke Testing (PST) and asset management diagnostic information.
SIL 3 conformance
The Foundation SIF installation will include three fieldbus segments with hardware from three different suppliers. Engineers will evaluate system integration capabilities with asset management and Basic Process Control System (BPCS) platforms.
The process industries requested the Foundation SIF solution in order to realize the CAPEX and OPEX benefits of open and interoperable fieldbus technology in plant safety systems. In response to this request, the Fieldbus Foundation developed a SIF protocol enabling end users to adopt powerful fieldbus diagnostics while maintaining the protection of a SIL 3 environment. This clearly indicates the value of the comprehensive, forwardthinking design of Foundation technology.
The Fieldbus Foundation’s SIF protocol meets the rigorous requirements of the IEC 61508 standard for functional safety of electrical, electronic and programmable electronic safety-related systems, up to, and including, Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3. In addition, end users can build systems per the IEC 61511 standard covering SIF functional safety in the process industries.
