Review of online knowledge days Industrial Safety 2021

For two days, members of the Industrial Automation sector focused on the subject of industrial safety. This happened online due to the corona measures, but that did not stop the speakers from properly informing the viewer about the latest state of affairs on this crucial subject. The focus was on the manufacturing industry and the process industry.

By: Dimitri Reijerman

The opening of the two-day sessions was by Marcel de Munck, Senior Consultant Safety Culture. He discussed the relationship and interaction between humans and machines. Issues such as perception, cognition and stress were discussed. In the second session of Tuesday, Marco Teunizen (JUMO Meet- en Regeltechniek BV) spoke about the entire safety chain in accordance with SIL/PL standards. Because which conditions must be met? Teunizen explained how risk assessment can be applied, the importance of sensors for safety and the usefulness of SIL/PL safety standards.

Edwin Buisman (Pilz Netherlands) talked in his webinar about validating safety functions of programmable safety systems and how machines can be made as safe as possible. The Machinery Directive, among other things, was introduced, in which the operating system plays a crucial role. Buisman also looked at the advantages of safety relays and safety PLCs. After his webinar, he was asked many good questions.

Arno Luisman (VIRO) looked at the approach to risk analyzes at the dividing line between process and machine. After going through a considerable list of concepts from the security world, he delved into risk analysis as a tool. Finally, Ton Beems (Yokogawa) presented three recipes for success before disaster. He debunked the myth that a SIL3 certificate automatically ensures a safe environment. Beems also mentioned a number of other pitfalls and the tip to properly check safety certificates. As examples of disasters due to negligence, Beems cited disasters such as Chernobyl, Piper Alpha, Deepwater Horizon and the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. His conclusion: provide sufficient retraining and think about the people in the overalls.

Day 2

The day was opened by John van Leeuwen from Weidmuller. He provided answers to the question of whether the Internet of Industrial Things can replace inspections. Peter Adema (HITMA) discussed the topic of flame detection. Because which technology do you choose for optimal safety? He explained, among other things, the advantages of an optical flame detector.

Maarten Braadbaart from SICK BV spoke about the safety requirements for robots and cobots under the heading of machine safety 2.0. Because are robots inherently safe or not? Roel Janssen & Laurent van der Pluijm (Murrelektronik) said during the penultimate webinar that machine safety does not have to be complex during implementation. The closing webinar – by Benno Brinkers and Jeroen te Brake (Festo) – discussed safety in pneumatic and electric drives. Including sliding valves and valve seat valves.

After two days of discussing the subject of industrial safety from numerous angles, the knowledge days were concluded by the team from the Industrial Automation sector. Hopefully another physical meeting can be realized next year, but the shared knowledge from this session will remain available.

In total, more than 420 visitors viewed one or more webinars.