Safety briefs

Staff -- Control Engineering, 9/1/1998

Safety cuts across all industries and aspects of control.

(See this issue's cover stories for related safety coverage in this edition.) Recent developments include the following:

Fisher-Rosemount (F-R, Austin, Tex.)—because of the market importance and complexity of regulation—is spending 90% of its time on FDA-related solutions. In March 1997, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, Washington) finalized regulations allowing expanded use of computer technologies for electronic records and signatures as standards for providing electronic batch records for drug products.For more information on Fisher-Rosemount's FDA solutions, visit www.controleng.com/info.

Managing change among software versions becomes critical when the software touches safety-related portions of the plant or process. MDT Software (Alpharetta, Ga.) is among companies offering automation software change management tools that allow users to protect and manage programs and devices used for automation and control. For more information on MDT Software, visit www.controleng.com/info.

The European Machinery Directive can affect safety decisions in equipment for discrete and process applications. Among dozens of safety citation are pneumatic and hydraulic equipment (EN 292, EN 982, EN 983) and interaction between safety related parts of control systems (EN 292, EN 60204-1), according to the "Understanding the Machine Directive" handbook from Rockwell Automation (Milwaukee, Wis.). For more information on the handbook, visit www.controleng.com/info.

Among the most obvious and perhaps most overlooked aspect of safety and control is resetting instruments and control valves, according to Ralph King and Ron Hirst, authors of the recently published second edition of King's Safety in the Process Industries, copublished by Arnold (London) and Wuerze Publishing (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). "The ranges of transmitters and receiving instruments are most readily changed. If this is done without operating staff being aware of the change and its implications, the results can lead to serious accidents," the book says.

For more information about the book, visit www.controleng.com/info.

Managing, writing, and distributing regulatory material and safety data sheets have become so complex that an entire class of software has arisen to assist developers. For example, Chemmate by Atrion (Reston, Va.) is a rule-based hazardous materials management and optimization software that uses algorithims to help users comply with U.S. and international laws and regulations on health, safety, transportation, and environment. For more about Chemmate, visit www.controleng.com/info.