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It's official: safety systems are safe

A Moore Industries International product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 15, 2002

Moore Industries is the first US company to be awarded IEC61508 certification to design and manufacture process instrumentation hardware for safety-related applications in high-risk industries.

Moore Industries is the first US company to be awarded IEC61508 certification to design and manufacture process instrumentation hardware for safety-related applications in high-risk industries such as chemical, petrochemical, and refinery.

Unlike many industry certifications that focus on the specific product, this standard focuses on evaluating the development process used to design and manufacture a product.

"Some companies in our industry claim to have IEC61508 compliant products.

In fact they have only had an assessment done on a single product, not on their company's processes to design and produce that product", states Leonard Moore, founder and CEO of Moore Industries.

"This is a severe shortcut, and certainly not in keeping with the intention of the standard.

We are proud to be the first to complete assessment of our entire design and manufacturing processes for instrumentation hardware".

I EC61508 is titled "Functional safety of electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety related systems".

It directs proper management of the life cycle and all components of safety instrumented systems (SIS), from sensors and logic solvers, to the response function applications that will take a process to a safe state when predetermined variables are attained.

In addition, IEC61508 requires that companies assign a target safety integrity level (SIL) for all SIS applications.

This assignment is based on the amount of risk reduction that is necessary to mitigate the hazard associated with the process to an acceptable level.

"Despite the complexity and costs involved in emerging technologies, safety should never be compromised", said Moore.

"Our commitment to product safety and quality has prepared us for the rigorous requirements of IEC61508.

This standard is going to dictate the future of our industry".

Certification assessment was conducted by London-based Sira Test and Certification, using the Conformity Assessment of Safety-related Systems (CASS) scheme.

This scheme provides a structure whereby third-party-accredited approval bodies may assess certification for all activities within a safety lifecycle for adequacy to the requirements of IEC61508.

The scope of the scheme covers all elements involved in the specification, design, development, manufacture, implementation, support, application of hardware components and complete systems, across many sectors.

"The demand for IEC61508 is rising rapidly and we know Moore Industries to be a customer-driven company which takes the lead in ensuring its clients receive the highest standards in service and product", said David Lewis, Managing Director of Sira Test and Certification.

"Providing IEC61508 compliant solutions demonstrates this commitment to quality for their customers".