Industrial Safety Workflow for Automated Compliance Verification

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Solution Overview

Problem

The design of industrial safety systems is often complicated and time-consuming due to the need for manual assessment and verification of safety function compliance with safety standards, particularly for designers lacking knowledge of prevailing safety standards, leading to potential failures in initial performance level verification and subsequent redesign.

Innovation Solution

An industrial safety design system that automates risk assessment, product selection, safety function design, and verification processes, featuring a user interface for interactive risk assessment and safety function development, a safety function component for generating functional safety data, and a reporting component for generating compliance documents, thereby streamlining the safety system design and validation.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If manual assessment and verification of safety function compliance is used, then designers can verify safety standards compliance, but the design process becomes complicated and time-consuming

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesafety standards compliance verificationVSAvoiddesign process time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables automated self-verification of safety compliance through built-in safety function components that automatically assess and verify compliance with safety standards, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual verification processes while maintaining reliability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces manual mechanical verification processes with automated computational systems that use algorithms and software components to assess safety compliance, significantly reducing design time while maintaining or improving verification reliability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Adaptability or versatility

If manual safety system design is used, then flexibility in design approach is maintained, but the complexity and time required for designing and verifying safety systems increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedesign approach flexibilityVSAvoiddesign process complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system introduces an automated safety function component as an intermediary that guides designers through the safety design process, providing structured assistance that reduces complexity while maintaining design flexibility through configurable parameters and options

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Ease of operation

If designers lack knowledge of prevailing safety standards, then design accessibility is improved, but compliance verification fails initially requiring redesign

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedesign accessibilityVSAvoidcompliance verification success
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system provides automated feedback mechanisms that continuously monitor and verify safety compliance during the design process, alerting designers to compliance issues in real-time and guiding them toward successful compliance achievement without requiring extensive prior knowledge of safety standards

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary safety compliance checks and assessments automatically during the design process, identifying and correcting compliance issues before final verification, thereby preventing initial verification failures and reducing the need for redesign iterations

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP4155902A1Safety automation builder - integrator
Publication Date: 2023.03.29 ROCKWELL AUTOMATION TECH INC
  • EP4155902A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4155902A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4155902A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A safety design system assists in the development of compliant industrial safety systems. User interfaces provided by the design system guide the user through an intuitive workflow for carrying out risk assessment analysis on industrial assets and designing safety functions for mitigating risks associated with the industrial assets. These user interfaces offer multiple views of safety system design aspects, including a layout view and a table view that offer alternative views of hazard and safety function data. The system also guides the user to the selection of suitable input, logic, and output devices for each safety function based on results of the risk assessment and local industrial safety standards.