Updated Platform Features Direct Communication Between Controllers to Improve Production and Reduce Costs
Honeywell has released an updated version of Safety Manager, the company’s safety instrumented system (SIS) platform, that balances the integration of process controls with critical safety systems. The latest version of Safety Manager, integrated with Honeywell’s ExperionÒ Process Knowledge System (PKS), allows safety and process controllers to directly communicate with each other without depending on intermediate interfaces such as PCs and without compromising operations security or data integrity.
In sharing critical information between Safety Manager and the Experion C300 process controller, the system can provide plant-wide SIS point data, diagnostics and system information, as well as alarms and events, operator displays and sequence of event information to any Experion station located in the plant. This integration allows plants to improve production by minimizing intervention and shutdowns and recover more easily from process upsets. It also reduces hardware and installation costs. Additionally, operators are not required to learn different systems for process control and SIS.
Sharing transmitter data can reduce the need for dedicated SIS transmitters for a particular safety instrumented function (SIF). In some cases, reducing the number of transmitters needed for an SIF can reduce the installation costs of the field sensor equipment by 30 percent, which can translate into more than $750,000 annual savings on an average process unit. This can also save on maintenance costs.
Additionally, Safety Manager can communicate a pre-shutdown alert to Experion to prevent a ripple effect in adjacent units that could negatively impact downstream production. This can reduce production losses and start up time once the problem is resolved.