SIL stands for Safety Inheritance and means safety level reliability or safety level assurance. In other words, SIL represents the relative amount of risk reduction that can be achieved using a particular safety procedure. Additionally, SIL represents the desired level of risk reduction expected as part of the system specification. Industrial safety is important because it protects our lives, the environment and property. To minimize risks in hazardous industrial applications such as fire and gas monitoring equipment (F&G systems), it is important to achieve safety standards such as ATEX certification.
Today, ensuring the safe operation of industrial processes is very important. Of course, the more dangerous the system under study, the more systems are needed to manage it. Security integrity level analysis is actually a management method that measures and clarifies the organization’s goals for risk reduction and determines acceptable risk values according to the organization’s goals.
What is a Safety Integrity Level (SIL)?
SIL certification Safety levels are defined based on the IEC 61508 standard. IEC 61508 is a global standard published by the International Electrotechnical Commission. This standard includes the steps to establish, design, implement and maintain self-defense systems known as security. A common way to assess the reliability of safety equipment performance (SIF) is to use a simple scale of one to four numbers, with four being very reliable and one being very reliable. Because the IEC 61508 standard is globally accepted, SIL certification can be used internationally and proves that the component is superior to the competition.
Which products can get SIL certification:
SIL certification is possible for all products that contribute to one or more safety functions (SF). Such as sensors, mechanical valves, measuring systems or software. Two types of certificates are issued at each SIL level and are governed by IEC 61508:
1- SIL type certificate
This certificate confirms the validity of the product type. CBs verify the reliability level of a component by inspecting a prototype. After verification, the manufacturer can produce the series from the prototype. The SIL type certificate is valid for 3 years. Product family can be verified by document type.
2- Special SIL certificate
This type of certificate covers only one component specified in the certificate. It is usually used for custom products or project products. Testing is done directly on certified products. This is a unique certificate that covers only one specific product and cannot be extended to other products.
