HIMax establishes new benchmark for safety systems

The new flexible HIMA Paul Hildebrandt + Co safety system is designed to increase plant profitability: Hima is launching a safety system on the market which sets new standards in the process industry

In the development of flexible, intelligent safety platforms, the HIMA special focus was on increasing the availability and profitability of process plants.

Offering unique features, HIMax ideally satisfies the global process industry demand for increasing the profitability of safety-oriented applications.

The profitability of automated production processes crucially depends on continuous operation.

In the event of a safety-critical situation, the installed safety system must shut the system down safely - but only when needed.

For this reason, in addition to maximum fault tolerance, care was taken in the development of HIMax to ensure that all maintenance, expansion and modification work at the system can always be performed online during process operation - without cutting back on safety.

This even includes the execution of proof tests which are mandatory according to IEC 61508/11.

The new XMR system architecture allows users to adjust the redundancy of individual modules to the requirements of the differing process loops.

XMR refers to the degree of modular redundancy in the system, with "X" assuming any value between one and four.

This also makes possible novel solutions for safeguarding against common-cause faults.

When, for example, fire or water damage in a control room results in the shutdown of critical safety system components, components which are redundant but have been installed in physically separated and different control or equipment rooms continue to operate safely, keeping the safety system fully functioning.

Even though it is a new development, HIMax is based on the HIMA safety technology that has proved its dependability thousands of times, which assures that it is reliable from the very start.

HIMax delivers high performance in time-critical applications and when high I/O counts are needed as well as in complex safety applications which require powerful CPU performance.

Thanks to its flexibility and architecture, it is easy to make online changes to the HIMax configuration, as process requirements change, thereby future-proofing the End-User investment.

Acquisition costs are optimised as well as a result of the scaleable architecure.

As a flexible platform HIMax offers various rack sizes and different assembly and wiring concepts.

For this reason users only need to purchase what they currently do in fact need.

They always have the flexibility of changing things later on.

With regard to I/O numbers as well as the response time and fault tolerance requirements, HIMax is entirely flexible and equally suitable for central as well as decentralised applications.

Like all HIMA products, HIMax offers unparalleled integration options with connectivity to all important DCS systems.

The all-new configuration management tool, SILworX, serves as a user-friendly, fully integrated configuration, programming and diagnostic environment for HIMax.

Its modern user interface helps to avoid configuration faults and speeds up planning and start-up operation.

Various user help levels as well as comprehensive validation tools assist in the performance of all tasks.

All safety-critical applications in the process industry can be implemented with HIMax.

These include emergency shutdown systems (ESD), burner management systems (BMS), fire and gas systems (FandG), turbo machinery control (TMC), high integrity pressure protection systems (HIPPS) or the automation of pipelines, among others.

HIMA Paul Hildebrandt + Co KG - safety-critical automation solutions for process, plant and buildings HIMA celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.

HIMA solutions are employed for applications up to SIL 4 (EC 61508/IEC 61511), cat 4 (EN 954) and PL e (EN ISO 13849).

These include emergency shutdown systems (ESD), fire and gas systems (F+G), burner management systems (BMS), high integrity pressure protection systems (HIPPS) as well as application solutions for materials handling technology, presses, painting systems, car body welding facilities, final assembly and lifts, among other applications.

Distributed safety-critical, applications can be implemented using the HIMA safeethernet network.

In addition to programmable, fault-tolerant systems, the product and service range also includes software packages for programming and HMI as well as safety consulting, project management, training and service.

Using established international, communication standards, HIMA systems can be integrated into any leading process control system.

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