IEC 61508 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search IEC 61508 is titled "Functional

safety of electrical/electronic/programmable ele ctronic safety-related systems". This article contains too much jargon and may need simplification or further ex planation. Please discuss this issue on the talk page, and/or remove or explain jargon terms used in the article. Editing help is available. (June 2008) The international standard IEC 61508 Functional safety of electrical / electronic / programmable electronic safety-related systems (E/E/PES) is intended to be a b asic functional safety standard applicable to all kinds of industry. IEC 61508 d efines functional safety as: part of the overall safety relating to the EUC (Equi pment Under Control) and the EUC control system which depends on the correct fun ctioning of the E/E/PE safety-related systems, other technology safety-related s ystems and external risk reduction facilities. The standard covers the complete safety life cycle, and may need interpretation to develop sector specific standards. It has its origins in the process control industry sector. The safety life cycle has 16 phases which roughly can be divided into three grou ps as follows: phases 1-5 address analysis, phases 6-13 address realisation and phases 14-16 address operation. All phases are concerned with the safety functio n of the system. The standard has seven parts. Parts 1-3 contain the requirement s of the standard (normative), while 4-7 are guidelines and examples for develop ment and thus informative. Central to the standard are the concepts of risk and safety function. The risk i s a function of frequency (or likelihood) of the hazardous event and the event c onsequence severity. The risk is reduced to a tolerable level by applying safety functions which may consist of E/E/PES and/or other technologies. While other t echnologies may be employed in reducing the risk, only those safety functions re lying on E/E/PES are covered by the detailed requirements of IEC 61508. IEC 61508 has the following views on risks: zero risk can never be reached safety must be considered from the beginning non-tolerable risks must be reduced (ALARP) [edit] See also safety standards Part 1: General requirements (required for compliance) Part 2: Requirements for electrical/electronic/programmable electronic safety-related systems (required f or compliance); Part 3: Software requirements (required for compliance); Part 4: Definitions and abbreviations (supporting information) Part 5: Examples of meth ods for the determination of safety integrity levels (supporting Information) Pa rt 6: Guidelines on the application of parts 2 and 3 (supporting information) Pa rt 7: Overview of techniques and measures (supporting information).