Safety monitoring software!

ACM Facility Safety has released SafeGuard Sentinel safety monitoring software to continuously measure, monitor and alert operations and management to process safety risks. The software also delivers contingency plans that can be executed immediately to address issues and reduce risk. By presenting real-time risk information and expert knowledge to make effective operational decisions, SafeGuard Sentinel helps prevent safety incidents, environmental infractions and downtime.

Bowtie Displays SafeGuard Sentinel provides “Bowtie Displays” which convert pages of HAZOP data into a single, powerful, and easy to understand graphical visualization. This helps operators understand the full scope of each potential risk, and see the impact of each safeguard. All risks and mitigations are shown on bowtie visualizations which include: ·       Hazardous events ·       Root causes ·       Consequences ·       Preventative safeguards ·       Mitigative safeguards ·       Contingencies for safeguard failure

SafeGuard Sentinel enables plants to reduce risk and identify critical safeguards during operation, and it provides information on which to base strategic decisions, including monitoring of safety performance indicators up to a Board of Directors level.

SafeGuard Sentinel runs on a Windows-based server in a plant network, and can be accessed by any device capable of running a browser, including DCS workstations, operator terminals, tablets and smartphones.

The SafeGuard Sentinel server connects through OPC and ODBC, allowing it to gather information from a variety of systems including DCSes, PLCs and PACs from all major control system suppliers. Other sources of data typically include safety systems, historians, SCADA systems, maintenance systems, operator logbooks and workflow tracking systems.

Depending on the network setup, SafeGuard Sentinel can be hosted in the plant DMZ, which allows access at a business level. SafeGuard Sentinel only needs one-way communication from the various systems to gather data, thus preserving plant security.

SafeGuard Sentinel integrates data from these various systems to create an all-inclusive database of information including Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) Studies and Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA). SafeGuard Sentinel uses this information to provide situational analysis and contingency plans for process safety situations.

In real-time, SafeGuard Sentinel monitors plant conditions, detects unsafe conditions, and alerts operators. SafeGuard Sentinel also captures risk events and operator actions for immediate visualization and future analysis.

By comparing the real-time measured risk level with the designed level of risk, SafeGuard Sentinel provides quantitative, leading metrics showing changes in risk over time. Management can use SafeGuard Sentinel to see how process risk is changing, and can benchmark safety performance across process units or entire plants. Drawing upon information from sources such as maintenance and training records, SafeGuard Sentinel reveals risks that would normally be undetected.

ACM Facility Safety releases SafeGuard Profiler safety software #PAuto

LOPA and SIL-Verification/Validation Packages to help process automation professionals design and evaluate plant safety systems.

Process automation professionals are ultimately responsible for the safety systems in their plant, but often find that the design of these systems is a complex task. What’s needed is a software tool that will improve their design efforts in a systematic fashion, ensuring compliance with all relevant standards, and more importantly, ensuring a correctly designed system that will protect the plant.

To address the challenge of designing safety systems, ACM Facility Safety introduces SafeGuard Profiler software, a design and analysis tool that speeds and simplifies safety system engineering and design.

SafeGuard Profiler is a Safety Integrity Level (SIL) lifecycle tool that gives process automation professionals the information and the power they need to conduct successful engineering failure analysis, SIL Determination, SIL Verification/Validation (SIL-V), SIL Optimization and other related tasks.

This tool provides a two-pronged approach to analysis of safety systems and processes, using a LOPA (Layer of Protection Analysis) module and a SIL-V software module for designing and evaluating SIL-rated systems. The two modules work together to help improve and maintain process plant applications at all stages of development.

The LOPA module provides a Bowtie visualization which helps users graphically visualize an often complex analysis process rather than sifting through pages of spreadsheets and data tables. The Bowtie lets process automation professionals see how causes and consequences of hazardous events are connected in ways that traditional methods might miss.

The SIL-V module helps with the design and optimization of safety instrumented functions (SIFs) to ensure that the system meets safety requirements under IEC 61511—ANSI /ISA 84.0. The module’s modeling engine can reduce design time by up to 50%, which translates into saving time and money during critical design phases.

Additionally, it can help determine optimal voting and test frequency for a specific SIF. Users can select the desired Probability of Failure on Demand (PFD), and the system will automatically calculate the required test interval, failure rate, partial stroke test coverage and other parameters.

SafeGuard Profiler also includes advanced reporting functions for customized layouts, and it supports the addition of imported external documents with each project. Compiled reports can be printed for presentation using company-defined formats.

It is designed to simplify the often complex safety system analysis process, and potential users can further shorten the learning curve with training.  ACM offers a free 30-day trial of their software, supported by complimentary expert training at their headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, as well as live, web-based instruction and video training.

Modules can be purchased separately, or purchased in an expert version which includes both modules along with all the functionality required for senior automation and controls professionals in an environment with a well-established safety culture.

The expert version includes advanced reporting and an export to SafeGuard Sentinel, a PC-based software package from ACM which continuously measures, monitors, and alerts operations and management personnel to process safety risks, and delivers contingency plans that can be executed immediately in case of an event.