Control Systems

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Safety related control systems are found in many products and systems ranging from machinery to process controllers.

We are specialists in the validation of such systems.

The requirements for safety related control systems have changed dramatically during the last few years. This has resulted in much confusion as there are four different families of standards that may apply. Electronic and software based safety controllers are becoming increasingly popular and as a result, new standards have been published to cover this new technology in addition to the traditional electrical, mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic technologies. These new standards can be difficult to follow and companies can spend hours trying to interpret them. Applying an unsuitable standard can result in excessive analysis being performed.

Fountain Safety Solutions can provide training and/or consultancy helping you to:

Know which are the most effective standards to apply
Determine the required performance level (PL) or Safety Integrity Level (SIL)
Understand hardware architecture and reliability requirements
Where fault exclusions can be applied

Standards Applicable to Safety-Critical Systems

Standard Series	Classification	Applies To
EN ISO 13849	Performance Levels A – E. Categories B, 1, 2, 3 & 4 apply to circuit architecture in a secondary role	Mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronics and software of machinery. EN ISO 13849-1: 2006 is now published and replaces EN 954 – 1 which will become obsolete from November 2009.
EN 61508	SIL 1 – 4	Electrical, electronics and software of all systems and equipment.
EN 62061	SIL 1 – 3	Electrical, electronics and software of machinery. It is a condensed version of EN 61508 specifically for machinery.
EN 61511	SIL 1 – 4	Electrical, electronics and software of process industry safety critical systems. It is a condensed version of EN 61508 specifically for the process industry.