ABB is sponsoring the first Functional Safety 2014 conference organised by the Institute of Measurement and Control.

The two day international and biennial conference, covering all aspects of functional safety, is being held on 4th – 5th November 2014 at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre, London. 

Taking part in both days of the programme, ABB experts will present three talks: Risk reduction management of hardware and software in safety critical applications; Compliance with IEC 61508/61511 in the offshore oil and gas sector; Legacy safety instrumented systems – maintain or evolve?

Designed for practitioners from a wide variety of industrial sectors who have responsibilities in any functional safety lifecycle phase, Functional Safety 2014 offers a platform to exchange views and experiences in the field.

“With increasing pressures on industry to demonstrate that their functional safety management procedures are best-in-class and heavy penalties imposed for failure to comply, the conference offers delegates the chance to hear expert views on a range of topics,” said ABB’s John Walkington.

As the world’s biggest provider of third party certified Safety Execution Centres and with over 700 certified safety engineers, ABB sees the conference as a good opportunity to address two main questions: Do we spend enough time and effort on our systems to ensure functional safety requirements are correctly specified? Do we have competent people available to undertake this task over the entire supply chain?

“Managing functional safety is an increasingly complex challenge and involves specifying safety requirements and managing supply chain partners,” said Walkington.

In accordance with the IEC61508/11 standards, ABB provides functional safety management, independent technical authority consultancy and training services to assist customers in achieving functional safety lifecycle compliance covering the complete safety life cycle.