New Safety Integrity Level (SIL) Resource Center Now Available Online At General Monitors

- SIL Center Provides How To Articles, Definitions, Q&A, and More -

General Monitors, the industry's premier safety monitoring solution provider, announces the availability of the company's extensive Safety Integrity Levels (SIL) Online Information Center http://www.gmigasandflame.com/sil_lead.html. The in-depth online SIL Resource Center continues General Monitors' 45-year history of focusing on customer problems by offering a diverse set of industry leading safety solutions.

The global importance of Safety Integrity Levels has grown substantially in the oil/gas, petrochemical and other process industries over the last 10 years. Despite its expanded use and importance, for many end users, systems integrators, and product vendors, SIL is still a confusing concept. Safety Integrity Levels are often misinterpreted and incorrectly implemented. In order to fully understand SIL and its implications, it helps to be familiar with the umbrella concept known as Functional Safety. It also helps to understand how SIL applies to Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) within the process industries. Both SIL and SIS are explained in detail at the SIL Online Center http://www.gmigasandflame.com/sil_lead.html.

SIL is a measure of safety system performance, in terms of probability of failure on demand (PFD). This convention was chosen based on the numbers: it is easier to express the probability of failure rather than that of proper performance (e.g., 1 in 100,000 vs. 99,999 in 100,000). Functional Safety, as defined by IEC standard 61508, is the safety that control systems provide to an overall process or plant by reducing risk to an acceptable level. The concept of Functional Safety was developed in response to the growing need for improved confidence in safety systems.

Major accidents around the world, as well as the increasing use of electrical, electronic or programmable electronic systems to carry out safety functions, have raised safety awareness. Industry experts began to address functional safety and formalize an approach for reducing risk in the process plant environment. The results of this effort were the development of standards IEC 61508, IEC 61511, and ANSI/ISA 84, which are performance based, unlike previous standards which were generally prescriptive in nature.

Visitors to the Online SIL Resource Center at General Monitors' web site can quickly access helpful and informative documents to clarify SIL concepts, applications and standards. The SIL Online Resource Center offers an example of how to determine Safety Integrity Levels and Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS) as well as useful links to associated standards organizations. An extensive Questions and Answers section is provided on the background and requirements of SIL and Safety Instrumented Systems process industries' practices, along with a Common SIL Myths section.

General Monitors believes that it is imperative for the company to continuously validate its work and improve its processes. The company's approach to ensuring a high level of functional safety is based on the globally recognized IEC 61508 and IEC 61511 standards. It encompasses a comprehensive set of activities conducted both in-house and by partnering with leading safety experts from around the world. Together, these activities provide General Monitors with an integrated process for designing products, assessing functional safety, improving robustness, and validating performance.

An extensive Failure Mode Effects and Diagnostics Analysis (FMEDA) is conducted early in the development of each new product and is used throughout the development cycle to improve functional safety. At General Monitors, the FMEDA is a critical design tool that is used to develop the highest level of safety products; it is not simply a post-design "paper study" that is conducted to obtain a so-called "target SIL rating." General Monitors' partners with globally recognized functional safety experts who have a wealth of experience, are involved with the safety standards committees, and are Certified Functional Safety Experts (CFSE). This allows General Monitors to provide its customers with comprehensive safety solutions that have the backing of their 45+ years of experience, along with the independent validation of leading functional safety partners.

About General Monitors

Founded in 1961, General Monitors is a leading-edge manufacturer of combustible gas, toxic gas and flame detection monitoring products and systems of the highest quality and reliability. The company is third-party certified to ISO 9001:2000 requirements. Corporate headquarters in Lake Forest, California comprise a modern engineering design center, R&D, manufacturing, sales and service complex. A facility in Galway, Ireland supports the EU with engineering design, R&D and manufacturing. Sales and service offices are maintained in Houston, Texas, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.