EUREKA Eurostars E! 8131 Safe process

Purpose and goal

Operator mistakes, especially field-operator mistakes are one of the main causes of accidents in Process and Maritime Industries. The mistakes often cause a high risk for environmental, economic and safety impact. The goal with the project was to develop a cost effective system that eliminate the risk for operator mistakes at field operations and have a reduction of maintenance costs.

Expected results and effects

The project developed a low cost solutions and systems to ensure correct operations according to safe operating procedures in the process and maritime industries. These industries have lots of safety critical manual valve operations where one mistake can be fatal. Large numbers of manual valves lack position monitoring due to the cost and inefficiency of current technology. The Project developed a system to eliminate the risk for operator mistakes based on leading edge low cost wireless RFID micro transmitters and electronic safe job procedures.

Planned approach and implementation

The project was delayed due to technical problem with the reading distance at the RFID micro transmitter. The RFID readers with ATEX certification on the market have limited transmitting power. The antenna at the micro transmitter had to be redesigned to get the needed reading distance. After the antenna modification the system is now proven to effectively work in an industrial environment.