Food & Drink Process & Packaging Issue 29 2020 | Page 18

Functional Safety Specialists Fulcrum is an independent company which specialises in Functional Safety compliance solutions for UK industries. Founded in 2014, we have established ourselves as a flexible company that can adapt quickly to our client needs and timescales. Based in the north east of Scotland, we support UK industries in all aspects of the Functional Safety Lifecycle. Functional Safety is essential to all process plant operations and our objective is to provide an efficient, high quality service, delivering Functional Safety solutions to ensure compliance and continued safe operation. We currently operate a business management system which is certified to ISO-9001, ISO-14001 and OHSAS-18001. We currently provide services for major oil companies and smaller independent operators. The standards that we work with are equally applicable to the UK food and drink industries as they are regulated by the Health and Safety Executive, with the approved code of practice IEC-61511, “Safety instrumented systems for the process industry”. Currently consisting of a team of five full time staff, we have proven competence by means of the TUV Rheinland Functional Safety Program, having both the FS Engineer and FS Expert qualification in our team. We also have expertise in the leading software products used in the management of Functional Safety. Two important aspects of the Functional Safety lifecycle that we provide services for are HAZOP and SIL assessment, where we would analyse the design and operation of your process plant to assign adequate reliability targets. We also follow on from those stages with a hardware verification study, to ensure that these targets can be met practically. 18 FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk In terms of training & competence, we have developed our own web-based training for operators and technicians, to ensure that people have adequate knowledge of process plant protective functions and the responsibilities that they have in maintaining them. This training carries CPD certification. With the release of IEC-61511 Edition 2 in 2016, we are providing audit services to comply with the new requirement for mandatory Functional Safety Assessments in lifecycle stages 1 to 5. This covers all aspects of a process plant from design, operation and maintenance to decommissioning. Finally, we have recently had discussions with a major distillery company to provide HAZOP services for one of their sites. On another site, we have been asked to provide bespoke proof testing services on-site to ensure that there is documented evidence that the protective trip functions are working to adequate standards. For more information, visit www.fulcrum-ns.com