How much of a risk taker are you? Festo and our Whitepaper will help...

So how do you make safety devices even safer, and reduce all kinds of risks across the board? By looking for safety components with a ‘productivity bonus’.

Right across industry, modern engineering and safety systems are already optimised. That means squeezing out greater efficiency and productivity now has to come down to maximising reliability and minimising downtime.  

One chemical manufacturer who has realised the potential productivity bonus of reliable safety systems is Bayer Crop Science.

Better-performing seals

The Bayer Crop Science site in Dormagen, Germany, includes a multi-purpose process development and production system. This uses flammable operating fluids, requires frequent process changeovers, and incorporates numerous interfaces and intervention points. The whole system is classified as a potentially explosive, either zone 1 or 2.

Numerous instrumentation and control technology devices protect the system, by switching  dosing, exhaust, steam and other valves to failsafe positions. The actuators are activated by solenoid valves with an SIL classification which matches or exceeds the classification of the entire safety loop. 

Most solenoid valves for use in safety instrument circuits are certified for between 4 and 8 years before they have to be changed. With over 1,500 valves across safety-related and non-safety-related circuits, for Bayer that would equate to significant regular downtime, lost production and component replacement costs.

The weak point of most valves is the seal, which – because it can become porous – is a finite product. The commonly-used piston spool valves have up to six seals, increasing the risk of seal failure. But by choosing Festo VOFC solenoid valves, Bayer maximised valve life and optimised safety and productivity. That’s because the Festo VOFC series incorporates a hard-sealed polyurethane valve seat rather than the usual soft seal. 

Planning 2,410 years ahead

Certified up to SIL 3, these valves guarantee a failure probability rate of 2.41 E-4 and a safe failure fraction of 75%. In other words, there’s a predicted maximum of one faulty operation in 2,410 switching cycles.

In a safety loop which undergoes an annual failsafe inspection, a faulty operation will only occur once in 2,410 years.

This incredible low – and unique – failure rate is why the Festo VOFC solenoid valve is the only one with open-ended certification. There’s no specified due date for change, no downtime for maintenance, no replacement cost, and no lost production as a result of valve failure – until around the year 4000! 

Now with added reliability

With that kind of unimaginably-low failure rate, it might seem impossible to add even more reliability to your safety system. But you can.