ITT Inc. announced that select Fabri-Valve® knife gate valves and cylinder models, marketed by its Engineered Valves brand, have earned certification to IEC 61508 in compliance with the International Electrotechnical Commission standards.
The IEC listing for Engineered Valves covers the knife gate valves and cylinder models that are manufactured at ITT’s Engineered Valves’ Amory, Mississippi operation.
Functional safety is a key focus of the IEC 61508 certification and is part of the overall safety that depends on a system or equipment operating correctly in response to its inputs. It is a concept applicable across all industry sectors, especially the oil and gas industry, nuclear plants and the machinery sector, where Engineered Valves products are used.
To earn IEC 61508 certification, the valve and cylinder testing and manufacturing processes were subject to rigorous auditing and evaluation to verify the products met requirements for use in automatic protection systems. In order for the complete valves to be certified to IEC 61508, all instrumentation and actuation components of the valve must be SIL Capable as well. Systematic Capability is established by having the quality management system audited per IEC 61508. If the QMS meets the requirements of 61508 a SIL Capability rating is issued. The rating achieved depends on the effectiveness of the QMS. The certificate is for the systematic capability of a product. The complete valve assembly will carry SIL Capable certification of the lowest SIL rated component.