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by Stephanie Neil, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 10:23:37 AM   | Abstract: | The controversy over integrating safety systems with process control may not be as dramatic as the debate over evolution in Inherit the Wind, but it is getting increasingly heated as advocates on both sides of the issue square off. |
Dow Chemical Co. has a long history of making safety a number one priority. It's become part of the company's DNA says Jerry Gipson, director of Dow Chemical's engineering technology center. The idea is: If you can't do it safely, don't do it at all," Gipson says. More than 30 years ago, the company began building a sophisticated set of guidelines, tools, and procedures for consistent safety practices across the enterprise. The effort included development of a proprietary safety technology that tied safety systems together with process control technology. Dow took the technology initiative upon itself because there were no integrated systems commercially available at the time. Indeed, there has been a longstanding belief that safety instrumented systems (SIS) should remain separate from process or even machine control systems, as they are meant to act as a backup to move the process into a safe state or shut down equipment in an orderly manner in case of an emergency. Integrating the two systems could jeopardize the SIS' ability to execute effectively, industry experts felt. [Click to continue] |