A practical guide to designing and assessing safety-critical systems to international standards

(ISBN 0-7506-5270-5)

[Available for purchase here] 

Electrical, electronic and programmable electronic systems, such as emergency shut down systems and railway signalling systems, increasingly carry out safety functions to guard workers and the public against injury or death and the environment against pollution.  The international standard IEC 61508 has been developed as a generic standard addressing the reliability of all such systems irrespective of their application.

IEC 61508 is seen by many professionals as complex.  This book overcomes that complexity by introducing the standard in the context of safety in general before moving on to provide practical advice about implementing it and obtaining certification.  It also explains how IEC 61508 relates to second tier standards and related guidance, such as IEC 61511, 61513, UKOOA, ISA S84.01 and DIN standards, among others.  Throughout the text, the authors illustrate their explanations with examples to which the answers are supplied in the appendix.  Four case studies with further exercises set the information in context.  Templates and checklists for drawing up your own implementation plan and information on self-certification are also provided.

As Functional Safety, the standard, is applicable to many industries, Functional Safety, the book, in its previous edition has proved to be an invaluable reference for professionals from a variety of industries, such as project / instrumentation/ design/ control engineers as well as safety professionals in oil and gas, chemical, rail, power generation, nuclear, aircraft and automotive industries.

The new edition includes a new chapter on IEC 61511, the process sector standard, published since the first edition.  The text has been updated throughout in light of the authors’ recent experience and two case studies have been added.

Kenneth G L Simpson

MPhil, FIEE, MIGasE

Kenneth Simpson has been associated with safety related systems designs and also with their assessment for 25 years.  He is a member of the IEC61508 drafting committee and also of the IGasE (SR15) panel which writes the gas industry guidance.  He also contributes to the IEC61511 committee.  Following a career in aerospace, Ken has spent over 25 years in the control and safety system industry and has written a number papers on the topic and gives frequent lecturers.

Dr David J Smith

BSc, PhD, CEng, FIEE, HonFSaRS, MIGasE

Dr David Smith has been directly concerned with reliability safety and software quality for over 30 years and has written a number of books on the subject as well as numerous papers.  His PhD thesis was on the subject of reliability prediction accuracy and common cause failure.  He chairs the IGasE panel which develops its guidelines on safety related systems, now in his third edition) and also made contributions to the development of ICE61508.