SAFETY CERTIFICATION

Living With
Safety Testing
While safety testing of instrumentation and control equipment adds cost and time-
to-market for vendors, the upside for end users is more important than most realize.

W
Peter Welander hile we take it for granted, the agencies to perform those tests, and customers
Control Engineering fact that your plant doesnt were doing those tests on their own.
burn down due to an electrical Products of all sorts, from consumer to medi-
fire and your computer doesnt cal to industrial, are tested by nationally recog-
electrocute you may owe much nized testing labs (NRTLs) to make sure that they
to safety standards and testing labs. Those logos can perform specific functions safely. Of course,
and stickers on all manner of equipment should the concept of what constitutes safety depends
remind you that much goes into keeping you, on the application. For example, a toaster may be
your home, and your plant safe. safe in a kitchen, but not in an oil refinery.
Imagine if you had to choose a pressure sen- User companies in an industrial context
sor and transmitter for an application where the have to decide what standards are applicable to
atmosphere could potentially be explosive. With- products in specific applications. In some cases,
out safety standards, you would have to evaluate that choice may be dictated by an outside regu-
the device on your own to make sure it does not latory agency (including local building and fire
have potential to ignite flammable gasses. Multi- inspectors), an industry association, or insurance
ply this action over all the devices in a plant, and company. Someone within that group will nor-
the benefits of safety test-
ing emerge very quickly.
Customers rely on
product certification agen-
cies to perform testing
that they would otherwise
need to do themselves,
says Luis Duran, product
marketing director, safety
and critical control for
Invensys Process Systems.
It is a way for customers
to reduce the approval
process for particular
ONLINE equipment to satisfy those
obligations. When I start-
For more information, visit:
ed in this business many
www.csa.ca years ago, the testing pro-
www.fmglobal.com tocols for safety systems
www.ul.com were many volumes, and
www.abb.com included a number of An explosion proof device under test at UL. The device is placed in an
detailed tests. The main enclosure that can be flooded with natural gas and air. A spark plug is
www.honeywell.com/ps
difference between then placed in the area to be tested to ignite the gas if it reaches an unaccept-
www.invensys.com/ps and now is that back then able level. Things do indeed fail tests from time to time and blow up in
www.pepperl-fuchs.com there were no certification the process. Source: Control Engineering
48 JUNE 2008 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com
SAFETY CERTIFICATION
mally have responsibility for inspecting the plant
and making sure the right standards have been
applied properly and appropriate products have
been selected. In most cases, these inspectors are
not from the testing lab.
That inspection responsibility falls on
authorities having jurisdiction, says John Dren-
genberg, P.E., manager of global consumer affairs
for Underwriters Laboratories (UL). If youre
building a plant that is manufacturing something
considered explosive, the local inspection author-
ity will have to inspect that plant and make sure
the components used have the proper certifica-
tions for that application. Were not out in the
field. We dont do any installing or inspecting.
We have no way to coerce customers to say they
want UL. Its the local inspection authorities.
Starting with a standard
An NRTL has to have a standard before it can
test anything. The lab may generate its own,
or it may test to an external standard. In some
cases, a supplier, user, and inspection authority
may have to agree on a relevant standard for a
Two real-life certificate lists
Following are two different industrial products and the number of
certifications they received to be considered fully marketable for their
respective applications.
Pepperl + Fuchs purge and DIN V VDE 19250;
pressurization controller DIN V VDE 0801 incl. amendment A1;
After development was complete, it DIN VDE 0110;
took another 10 months and $125,000 DIN VDE 0116;
to gather the list of certifications DIN VDE 0160 incl. amendment A1;
below to get the product certified for DIN EN 54-2;
US, Canada, ATEX, and IEC Ex: DIN VDE 0883-1; and
EMC shock and vibration testing; DIN IEC 68.
UL 913; IEC 61131-2;
UL 1203; ANSI/ISA S84.01;
CSA C22.2 No. 152-M1984; CSA Standard C22.2 No. 0-M982 Gen-
NFPA 496; eral RequirementsCanadian Electri-
IEC/EN 60079-0; cal Code, Part II;
IEC/EN 60079-1; CSA Standard C22.2 No. 142-M1987
IEC/EN 60079-2; for Process Control Equipment;
IEC/EN 60079-11; UL 508;
EN 61241-0; UL 991;
EN 61241-1; and UL 1998;
EN 61241-4. ANSI/ISA S84.01;
FM 3611;
Honeywell Safety Manager IEC 61131-3 (Functional Logic
SIS platform Diagrams);
NFPA 72 Standard for Fire Protection IEC 61508:1999, Parts 1-7;
from FM and TV. CE directive 89/336/EEC (EMC); and
TV BayernCertified to Class 6 CE directive 73/23/EEC
(AK6) safety equipment as defined in (Low Voltage).
the following documents:
50 JUNE 2008 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com
situation that is not typical.
If there is no standard, a user trying to choose
equipment for a critical installation will have to
do internal testing to determine if a product is
suitable for the anticipated use. Moreover, the
company will be subject to the understanding
and whims of any inspectors trying to evaluate
those choices and the installation. When there is
no objective authority, disagreements can result
and projects grind to a halt.
Two things drive standards development,
says Drengenberg. First, a change in technol-
ogy, and second, a preponderance of accident
information. If we get statistics that show that
something is malfunctioning to the extent that
it is causing a safety hazard, we want to know
about it. At UL we have a group that does noth-
ing but investigate reports from the field. Our
field report group is comprised of investigators
that take reports from manufacturers, govern-
ment agencies, and members of the public,
which they then investigate.
Standards are very specific descriptions writ-
ten in precise language that leave nothing to
interpretation. They cover a number of basic
points depending on the situation, including:
What an item is supposed to do;
Where it can be installed;
How it is to work;
Construction methods;
Internal component selection;
Installation instructions;
Environmental considerations;
Voltage and current ratings; and
Potential personal hazards.
These attributes must be outlined clearly
enough to inspect or test, so any technician will
know exactly what steps to take.
Writing a standard is a careful process that
involves a variety of participants. Drengenberg
describes the procedure: Standards are devel-
oped on a consensus basis. We have standards
technical panelsgroups made up of manu-
facturers; consumer users; large, government
agencies; consumer advocates; and even medi-
cal doctors, when its appropriate. We sit them
down and present the scope of the project and
our proposed requirement.
They talk about it, they debate, face-to-face
or by email. UL is then obligated to respond
to every bit of criticism, such as, We see what
youre proposing, but here are the drawbacks
And we evaluate that very carefully. Ultimately
to change a standard, we have to get agreement
from that standards technical panel. We want to
write a standard thats relevant for now and will
be relevant for a good period of time, but we
review our standards constantly.
SAFETY CERTIFICATION
Testing organizations frequently inter-
act with companies during design phase
to prevent them making choices that will
make certification more difficult.
Why so many standards?
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52 JUNE 2008 CONTROL ENGINEERING www.controleng.com
have been developing over the last cen-
tury or so, and many of the organizations
grew to cover specific countries, regions,
or industries when companies were
much less global. These groups have
largely maintained independence, each
with its own body of standards. The
Solid Performance
how many agencies there are. Interna-
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frequencies are field-configurable through
David Hohenstein, department man-
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result is that one can often find multiple
standards around the world, or even in
the same country, that cover the same
ground. Selecting the right ones can
therefore be a challenge for end users.
Some products or applications tend
to align with one specific lab or another,
although this is far from uniform. In the
U.S., for example, FM (Factory Mutual)
has long been the leader in intrinsically
safe devices, whereas UL covers electri-
cal panels and associated equipment.
Some devices simply have multiple
marks to satisfy everyone.
Suppliers wishing to sell products in
different parts of the world soon realize
tional customers and the local authori-
ties that regulate them often have very
specific ideas as to what they will accept
and what they wont.
Increasing globalization has not
slowed the proliferation of standards,
although it may have mitigated the
effect by increasing the variety that a
local body may accept. This is difficult
to quantify and most information is
anecdotal, but the conventional wisdom
is that local inspectors prefer local stan-
dards. An inspector in Russia requiring
the local GOST (Gosudarstvenii Standart)
is no different than one in Texas prefer-
ring UL to TV (Technischer berwac-
hungsverein) from Germany.
Does this mean there has to be a lot
of redundant testing to a variety of stan-
dards bodies? The answer differs, but
there is general agreement that the num-
ber of tests required is growing along
with associated expenses and time.
The three major ones we deal with
in North America are FM, UL, and CSA
(Canadian Standards Association), says
ager of hardware and marketing, for
Pepperl+Fuchs process automation
division. All three of those can do certi-
fications in the U.S. to U.S. standards, or
in Canada to Canadian standards.
If the standards are similar, is there
a way the testing done by one lab can
be transferred to another? Hohenstein
laughs, Ahh, theres the rub. No, there
isnt. Theyre all independent, profit-
making bodies, and they dont transfer
one to the other, typically. It doesnt real-
ly matter if its approved at one and then
you submit it to another agency, that
doesnt mean anything to the other agen- Redundant or conflicting? just part of doing business in particular
cy. They want to do it all themselves. Given the variety of standards, do regions. As an example, any system used
requirements ever conflict? I wouldnt in a fire and gas application in China
Creating global products call it conflicting requirements, says requires certification by the Chinese
A supplier has to determine how many Duran, but we encounter the need to Fire Authority. The requirements are
standards are applicable for a given meet redundant requirements and re-test similar to NFPA72 (National Fire Pro-
product based on the number of markets to a particular national standard. That is tection Association), however, we must
and breadth of applications. This infor-
mation comes primarily from the field.
Scott Hillman, product marketing
manager for Honeywell Process Solu-
tions, describes the interaction: Our
voice of the customer process tells us
which standards we have to get ahead
of time, but there are also times where
customers say Ill buy this product for
this application if it meets these particu-
lar standards. Certification is the way to
prove that it meets those standards.
Does everything have to happen at
once? Companies approach this differ-
ently as they consider promoting prod-
ucts in a variety of markets and regions.
When were first looking at market-
ability of a product well put together
our wish list, says Hohenstein. We
have our minimum requirements to
launch the product and make it industry
viable. We have to have x approval and
y approval in order to sell it, and then
we have wish list approvals for phase
two, phase three, and phase four of the
product roll out as we look to grow to
a different region or as we expand and
consider safety critical applications.
Other companies like to do it all at
the start. Sean Keeping, vice president
of technology for ABB instrumentation,
deals with global launches regularly. He
says, In the last few years, all product
releases, regardless of the factory they
come fromwhether its in Europe, Asia,
or the U.S.every product is considered
a global product, and that helps define
the certifications that we will actually
need to launch a product globally.
When we arrange a product launch,
we want to say we have all the neces-
sary product certifications for Europe,
the U.S., and Asia. What we dont want
is to be in a position where we launch
a product in Europe with European cer-
tifications, and then our sales channels
in the U.S. says, But we cant sell that
because it doesnt have U.S. certifica-
tions. So right at the outset of a project,
we define the global certifications. We
do not make regional products.
www.controleng.com CONTROL ENGINEERING JUNE 2008 53
 SAFETY CERTIFICATION
demonstrate compliance to the Chinese national
authorities.
Testing and beyond
The importance of production and manufactur-
ing issues can complicate testing and change the
point in a design cycle where it takes place. In
Europe, we have CE (Conformit Europenne)
certification, and we have to have a CE mark on
a product before we actually sell it, says Keep-
ing. If you look at the U.S., with UL and FM,
its extremely difficult to launch a product with
UL and FM approval, because you really have
to have a serial production product to test. You
cant test a prototype. So UL and FM certifica-
tion will come six months after we launch a
product for that very reason.
ATEX (Atmosphere Explosibles) explosion-
proof certification is another difficult area, says
Keeping, because we have to wait six months
to have production product tested. So, for those
six months, we have a product that is completed,
but without certifications.
NRTLs know their job is just beginning when
HALF?PAGE?HOR?#%?JUN??OUTLINEDPDF0-
a product has been certified. Once a mark has
been awarded, an organization normally requires
ongoing audits as long as a supplier wants to
continue using the mark. This usually involves
an agreement that the supplier will submit to
inspections and audits, usually without warning,
to ensure that nothing has changed in the manu-
facturing process.
The frequency of these audits depends on the
number and nature of products produced under
the standard. Small producers may only be vis-
ited a few times a year, but very large producers
with a large selection of certified products can
have inspectors on premises continuously. The
costs of these inspections are covered by the sup-
plier through agreements with the lab.
While these procedures may make life com-
plicated for manufacturers, ultimately the results
benefit end users. Hillman observes, At the end
of the day, the whole standards and certification
business is about two very simple things: quality
and compliance. There is a cost to that, so we
in the industry try to build those costs into the
product as much as we can one time, so custom-
ers can share in the benefit. ce
Peter Welander is process industries editor.
Reach him at peter.welander@reedbusiness.com.
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