08 January 2008
News > Latest news > Capula achieves IEC 61508 certification
Safely does it
Capula Ltd is leading the way in functional safety after recently becoming one of the first systems integrators to achieve IEC 61508 certification.
Operating out of offices across the UK, Capula provides mission critical control solutions to a list of blue chip companies in the energy and utilities markets. The formal certification has been received from Sira Test & Certification Ltd and recognises Capula's safety systems capability under the CASS (Conformity Assessment of Safety-related Systems) methodology for assessment and certification to IEC 61508 guidelines. The certification demonstrates Capula's ability to deliver safety-related systems engineered to the exacting IEC 61508 standards and its commitment to this increasingly important area.
Commenting on the certification Capula's Quality Assurance Manager, Bruce Sherratt, said, “There is a growing demand within many industries for process control systems that include safety functions to be engineered and maintained to IEC 61508. In the absence of alternative industry guidelines, IEC 61508 has become best practice and Capula has already engineered a number of safety related systems and by mid 2008, we expect to have delivered at least 15 safety systems, all fully engineered to the IEC 61508 guidelines.”
“The need for such a standard is clear, every plant owner has a legal responsibility to apply due diligence to the issue of plant safety and to ensure that all possible steps have been taken in the design of process plant to eliminate as far as possible any safety hazard which could cause injury or death to personnel. This requirement has always existed but there is now a general desire by all parties to make the workplace safer. In addition the Health and Safety Executive is taking a greater interest in the subject of functional safety following a number of recent high profile industrial accidents in an increasingly litigious environment.”
“At Capula we recognise the need to engineer safety systems properly and the consequences of not doing so. The markets that we operate in involve control and protection of hazardous plant such as power generation, nuclear waste handling, and various other industrial processes, so we are experienced in delivering systems into high risk environments. Like each of our advanced automation systems, which we deliver to the highest quality standards, our safety systems are engineered to be fully compliant with IEC 61508 and we have enhanced our quality systems and procedures to ensure that they align with IEC 61508.”
“Each safety system we deliver is issued with an IEC 61508 compliance certificate, which along with the mandatory validation report and quality documentation, demonstrates to the owner of the plant that the issue of plant safety has been fully taken care of with respect to the Capula scope of supply.”
Capula applied to Sira Test & Certification Ltd during May 2007 and requested certification to the international functional safety standard IEC 61508 to supply safety-related systems to the power generation, nuclear, water, oil and gas industries, up to and including Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 2.
The CASS methodology that Sira uses for assessment and certification to IEC 61508 provides a rigorous and internationally acceptable structure under which consistent certification of safety systems can take place.
The assessment covered Capula's policies, processes and procedures with respect to their functional safety technical and management activities. The assessors also evaluated evidence of the correct application of these generic procedures in terms of project-specific documentation and activities. The assessment used the CASS methodology as described in ‘The CASS Guide' issue 2a. This methodology involves the use of standard templates with ‘targets of evaluation' that map to the relevant requirements in IEC 61508. Sira was the first certification body in the world to be accredited by UKAS to carry out assessments and issue certification using this industry-recognised process.
Documentation was submitted to Sira for desktop assessment that then culminated in a visit to Capula's head office in Stone, Staffordshire on 23 October 2007, where the details of the evidence were audited and the comments on the documents discussed. The assessors found that Capula has developed and is applying a very effective functional safety management system that is applied by highly experienced staff, which together demonstrates their capability in functional safety.
Paul Reeve, Functional Safety Certification Manager at Sira talking about Capula's recent assessment said, “Capula performed very well during the audit. The assessors were very impressed with Capula's procedures and capability, which were of an extremely high level.”
Sira
Sira is a world leader in the conformity assessment solutions field, specialising in certification of products and systems to IEC 61508 functional safety standard.
Sira is accredited by UKAS to undertake its certification activities in accordance with the CASS Scheme, and is committed to helping its customers promote their products and services in the international market, with the highest level of credibility with regard to functional safety.
Sira assesses a wide range of companies and products involved in many diverse applications supplying for example, the process, machinery, automotive, diving, utilities, railway and nuclear industries.
The relevant standards, which are now widely accepted, are:
IEC 61508
The generic standard provides a firm basis for the specification, design and operation of electrical or electronic (including software controlled) safety systems and allows the potential of this technology to be realised fully and safely
It also forms the basis for related industry-sector standards, such as:
IEC 61511
Functional Safety of safety instrumented systems for the process industry
IEC 61513
Nuclear power plants: Instrumentation and control for systems important to safety
IEC 62061
Safety of Machinery: Functional safety of safety-related E/E/PE control systems
EN 50402
Detection and measurement of combustible or toxic gases, vapours or oxygen