Call for papers: Practical impacts of IEC 61508 and new safety technologies

Practical impacts of IEC 61508 and new safety technologies

Are you an engineering professional in the Australian safety industry?

IDC Technologies is currently looking for a number of presenters to submit an abstract and present their papers at the upcoming Safety Control Systems Conference that IDC will be bringing to Australia this year.

Most of the recent revisions to the IEC 61508 standard are improvements in detail arising from commonsense experience. Hence they provide a platform for discussion on the practical experience of manufacturers and standards writers, showing how things can be done better.

The subject of 'competency' has now been included as a mandatory requirement for compliance so this will be significant for the training of engineers in the subject. Formal certification of safety experts will probably become even more desirable.

The focus of the conference will be on:

• Revisions to IEC 61508 Standard and their impact on vendors and end users
• New developments in safety control technology
• Growth of safety network technology and the wide range of new products
• Integrated control and safety systems
• Requirements for equipment safety controls to comply with IEC 61508
• Competency training, certification and schemes
• Certification of companies for management of functional safety
• The impact of functional safety standards in mining and transportation

Click here to download the call for papers document for further topic suggestions.

What relevance does IEC 61508 have to the engineering work being done by engineering professionals? The standard has two main roles as we see it:

1. It always serves as the foundation standard for other application-specific standards that are used for projects in chemicals and automation. The process safety instrumentation standard IEC 61511 is based on it. So are the machinery safety controls standards IESO 13849 and IEC 62061. These application standards normally update a few years after anything that IEC 61508 does and those who build chemical plants have a limited involvement with it since they will run their projects along guidelines in IEC 61511.
2. IEC 61508 is the basis for design and building of individual instrument products from safety PLCs down to proximity switches. It is the reference standard for safety certification by the big testing houses such as TUV and UL. Hence engineers who manufacture instruments have a direct interest in it.

What is required? Write a technical paper and present this at the conference using PowerPoint to illustrate your main points. You will be allocated 45 minutes (paper and presentation required).

Abstract

To express interest in presenting at the conference, please send a 100-word abstract outlining the topic you would like to present at the event. Please email Arna Holmes, your Conference Coordinator: arna.holmes@idc-online.com.

Abstracts are due by 25 May 2011.

For more information or for a sponsorship prospectus, contact Conference Co-ordinator Arna Holmes arna.holmes@idc-online.com.