Functional Safety of industrial machinery

Improving functional safety through EN ISO 13849-1 and EN 62061

In a world where the interoperating technologies used within manufacturing are becoming increasingly complex, there are several important ways for manufacturers to ensure that their equipment continues to operate safely and correctly.

What is functional safety?

Functional safety is part of the overall safety of the machine and the machine control system that depends on the correct functioning of the Safety-related Control System (SCS) and other risk reduction measures. Ensuring functional safety is about going beyond traditional product safety assessments to identify the new types of hazards brought about by modern manufacturing methods and providing protection against them.

What standards does functional safety adhere to?

First published in 1996, EN 954-1 was used as the functional safety standard for parts of the control system both for machine builders and end users for nearly fifteen years. But with technology rapidly advancing, this standard was no longer able to keep up with systems and components being developed.

In 2007, EN 954-1 was replaced by two new standards – EN ISO 13849-1 and IEC 62061 – designed to deal with the changing technologies:

• EN ISO 13849-1 addresses the safety of all system technologies including mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic products. Where safety functions are to be performed by safety related parts of the control system (SRP/CS), EN ISO 13849-1 can be used to show compliance with the EHSRs of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC.
• IEC 62061 refers to the generic functional safety standard considers the whole lifecycle of electrical, electronic or programmable electronic (E/E/PE) systems and products. This is the machinery specific implementation of IEC/EN 61508. Compliance with the EHSRs of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC can be demonstrated through the implementation of this standard.

However, these standards require increased levels of knowledge and experience to apply correctly.

How can TÜV SÜD improve your functional safety?

TÜV SÜD offers a wide range of services to support you throughout the design, construction and installation of your electrical equipment. We can work alongside your design and engineering teams to:

• Create a Safety Requirements Specification
• Determine the required performance level (PLr) or Safety Integrity Level (SIL) for each safety function;
• Assist with design and technical realization of the safety function;

Evaluate the performance level or achieved SIL considering architecture (e.g. category) component failure rates, diagnostic coverage (DC) and common cause failures (CCF);

Complete validation to demonstrate that the combination of subsystems (e.g. SRP/CS) providing each safety function meets all relevant requirements.

In the application of EN ISO 13849-1 and EN 62061, our experts work to mitigate machinery safety hazards through a comprehensive risk assessment, undertaken in accordance with EN ISO 12100 for the relevant phases of the life cycle of a machine.

Whatever your objectives, TÜV SÜD has the skills and experience to help you meet them.