Goble, W.
HP Automation Safety: Is it possible to communicate risk issues successfully?
A safety project has a better chance of being approved if the person making the payback decision understands the concept of “risk cost.” If there is a likelihood of a $1,000,000-cost event h..
HP Control: Distillation column dual-temperature control-Part 1
This editorial takes issue with a claim by Mr. Greg Shinskey that distillation dual-composition control cannot be done effectively by a multivariable predictive controller (MPC), but can be done effec..
HP Automation Safety: The ups and downs of mentoring
Although it seems like old news to me, I have recently read articles describing an eminent engineering talent shortage. It could be real, especially considering the economic pain of the present enviro..
HP Automation Safety: Safety culture for operations and maintenance
While recently analyzing failure records from different petrochemical plants, some interesting trends emerged from the information. A particular instrument model experienced significantly different fa..
HP Automation Safety: Are you the designated jailee?
In a popular European industry newsletter, I spotted an unsettling story—"Criminal proceedings have been commenced against Total UK Ltd., Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd., British Pipeline Agency L..
HP Automation Safety: Value of failure data
A good instrumentation failure tracking system can provide many benefits; most are linked to saving money and to increasing plant performance. So, why isn't this common practice? Many companies in the..
HP Automation Safety: Accounting for process connections in SIS design
 Many safety instrumented system (SIS) designers understand what happens when the process connection to a pressure transmitter gets plugged. The transmitter output will likely get very sluggish a..
HP Automation Safety: Biggest design mistakes in SIS
I can just imagine the debate and opinions that arise regarding design mistakes. So, what is the biggest design mistake in safety instrumented systems (SISs)? Some would quickly explain that the great..
Satisfying safety standard competency requirements
Deploying a robust, IEC conformant safety instrumented system requires uncompromised competency in every step of the process
HP Automation Safety: Still not using a safety PLC?
The concept of using a special-purpose programmable logic control (PLC)/controller designed for fail-safe operation started over 25 years ago. The early programmable machines were designed applying th..
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