Process Safety Blog

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06.17.2009

I'm taking a stance, and publicly telling you my vision on the issue of separation and integration for safety and control.  When this happens, is still up to debate.

 

 

05.28.2009

As I began my career in Process Control almost 20 years ago, I remember asking my mentor why our process & instrumentation diagrams (P&ID’s) showed field instruments and final control elements wired up to two different control systems.  His simple explanation was that the distributed control system (DCS) was used to control the process while the programmable logic controller (PLC) was for safety interlocks.  That made no sense to me considering my lack of experience, so I pushed him for a better explanation.  His polite, yet ‘curt’ response on my follow up questioning went something like this “Look kid, the PLC does binary or discrete logic while the DCS does analog or 4-20ma logic”.  Okay, electrically that made sense to me, not sure why, but I left it at that.

02.27.2009
A technical standard is an established norm or requirement. It is usually a formal document that establishes uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes and practices, often referred to as ‘good engineering practice’.
02.10.2009

This past fall I was appointed as the Safety theme chair for ISA expo 2009 (Oct 6-8 2009).  Essentially what this means is that I’m responsible for putting together the entire track of safety sessions. 
At first I was honored and excited about the opportunity to put together a 3 day focus on safety.  But now, with the economy as it is, and travel restrictions for many of us, I’m finding this to be a challenging task.

 

 

12.12.2008
Charles Fialkowski
Often, I get questions about the why and how on implementing safety. You know those apparently simple, minor details like: “Do I really need a safety system?” or “Can’t I just build it the way we've always done it, ignoring the manufactures guidelines (or safety manual)?”
11.03.2008

Charles Fialkowski answers SIX of the most commonly misunderstood Process Safety Topics at the New York City exiderdome, November 5th at  4:15pm.

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