Design For Safety Equipment and design
/ By Panorama Consulting & Engineering Inc. / Project Management • Safety • System design/ 0 Comments

Design for safety

System safety

System Safety is the application of engineering and management principles, criteria, and techniques to optimize all aspects of safety within the constraints of operational effectiveness, time, and cost throughout all phases of the system life cycle. It is a planned, disciplined and systematic approach to preventing or reducing accidents throughout the lifecycle of a system

Primary concern is the management of risks through:

  • Risk identification, evaluation, elimination & control through analysis, design & management

History of system safety

Design Safety arose in the 1950s after dissatisfaction with the fly-fix-fly approach to safety. Design Safety was first adopted by the US Air Force. It led to the development of mil-std-882 Standard Practice for System Safety (v1 1960s). The basic concept of System was rather than assigning a safety engineer to demonstrate that a design is safe, safety considerations were to be integrated from the design phase of the project.

Founding principles

Safety should be designed in

  • Critical reviews of the system design identify hazards that can be controlled by modifying the design
  • Modifications are most readily accepted during the early stages of design, development, and test
  • Previous design deficiencies can be corrected to prevent their recurrence

Inherent safety requires both engineering and management techniques to control the hazards of a system

  • A safety program must be planned and implemented such that safety analyses are integrated with other factors that impact management decisions

Safety requirements must be consistent with other program or design requirements

  • The evolution of a system design is a series of tradeoffs among competing disciplines to optimize relative contributions
  • Safety competes with other disciplines; it does not override them

The main principles of Safe design are:

  • Inherent safety
  • Safety factors
  • Multiple independent safety barriers

Inherently safe design 

Inherent: belonging to the very nature of the person/thing (inseparable). It is recommended that Inherent safe design should be the first step in safety engineering. Change the process to eliminate hazards, rather than accepting the hazards and developing add-on features to control them, unlike engineered features, inherent safety cannot be compromised.

Minimize inherent dangers as far as possible by considering the following:

  • Potential hazards are excluded rather than just enclosed or managed
  • Replace dangerous substances or reactions by less dangerous ones (instead of encapsulating the process)
  • Use fireproof materials instead of flammable ones (better than using flammable materials but keeping temperatures low)
  • Perform reactions at low temperatures & pressures instead of building resistant vessels

Safety Factors

Factors of safety (FoS), also known as safety factor (SF), is a term describing the load carrying capacity of a system beyond the expected or actual loads. Essentially, the factor of safety is how much stronger the system is than it usually needs to be for an intended load. Safety factors are often calculated using detailed analysis because comprehensive testing is impractical on many projects, such as bridges and buildings, but the structure’s ability to carry load must be determined to a reasonable accuracy.

When the material used is under strength, factor of safety covers uncertainties in material strength. It covers poor workmanship. It also covers unexpected behavior of the structure and natural disasters. Stresses are produced which may be very high. Factor of safety may take care of these loads during construction. Presence of residual stresses and stress concentrations beyond the level theoretically expected.

Multiple Independent Safety Barriers

Safety barriers are arranged in chains. The aim is to make each barrier independent of its predecessors so that if the first fails, then the second is still intact, etc. Typically, the first barriers are measures to prevent an accident, after which follow barriers that limit the consequences of an accident, and, finally, rescue services as the last resort.

The basic idea behind multiple barriers is that even if the first barrier is well constructed, it may fail, due to unforeseen reason, and that the second barrier should then provide protection. The major problem in the construction of safety barriers is how to make them as independent of each other as possible. If two or more barriers are sensitive to the same type of impact, then one and the same destructive force can get rid of all of them in one swoop.

These three principles of engineering safety – inherent safety, safety factors, and multiple barriers are quite different in nature, but they have one important trait in common. They all aim at protecting us not only against risks that can be assigned meaningful probability estimates, but also against dangers that cannot be probabilized, such as the possibility that some unforeseen even triggers a hazard that is seemingly under control. It remains, however, to investigate more in detail the principles underlying safety engineering and, not least, to clarify how they relate to other principles of engineering design.

 

 

/ By Panorama Consulting & Engineering Inc. / MEP • System design/ 0 Comments

Ten reasons why your project requires an MEP Consulting Firm

Any project is successful when the right team works on it. For any construction or renovation project an MEP consulting firm is just as important as an architect or a builder. MEP stands for Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing; a type of engineering that focuses on creating a safe environment for human use.
There are various reasons why MEP consultants are highly important for any building project.

We’ve listed down the top ten reasons.

  1. Mechanical – For any building project, residential or commercial, heating and ventilation services are essential. This is where the MEP engineers step in. They are responsible for the installation and maintenance of air conditioners, heaters, exhaust and smoke control. An MEP consultant will ensure their designs provide comfort and run efficiently.
  2. Electrical – Electrical services are indispensable. Your project will be incomplete without electricity and lighting. MEP consultants are responsible not just for lighting but also other electrical services such as fire alarms, security systems, smoke alarms etc. They provide solutions to the best services that are energy efficient and environment friendly.
  3. Plumbing–The plumbing aspect focuses on fire suppression systems as well as gas delivery systems in medical and laboratory settings. They are also responsible for water and waste management systems such as drinking water, irrigation water, sewers etc.
  4. Effective design – MEP consultants provide the best design solutions that are cost effective and worthwhile in the long run. These designs should not only employ the most recent and competent technologies but also provide foresight to ensure maximum lifecycle.
  5. Environment friendly – Whether it is energy conservation or water conservation, the experts certainly know the best. These consultants aim at providing services that utilize environment friendly products in order to reduce excessive consumption of resources.
  6. Cost Efficient – Every project that you take up has a stipulated budget that needs to be followed. With the help of MEP engineers not only do you manage to stay inside budget but also end up with systems that will be cost efficient in the long run.
  7. Optimum use–The expertise of MEP engineersensures that the products and systems required for your project provide maximum utilization. They ensure that maintenance of systems is limited and simple and workers are well trained to handle issues, if any.
  8. . Indoor environment –While focusing on creating an ecofriendly environment for the outdoors, it is also vital to build a safe and healthy environment indoors. Indoor environment quality refers to the use of natural daylight, moisture control, optimizing systems etc. A healthy indoor environment equates a safer environment for everyone.
  9. Building mechanism –Every system is connected to centralized hardware and software networks that control the indoor and outdoor features in a building. For example, your construction project requires HVAC commissioning; MEP consultants will cover the entire procedure for the project. Automation systems are required to build and maintain a building’s optimal operational performance and ensure safety and comfort the occupants.
  10. Expertise- It is always better to leave the job in the hands of the one that knows the best. MEP consultants are highly trained and experienced in their field. They work closely with architects and owners to provide successful coordination of building systems.

Panorama offers a variety of services in the mechanical, electrical and plumbing divisions for pharmaceutical and chemical sectors. Our specialized services will help your company with the sustenance it requires. We are a leading MEP Consulting Firm in Mumbai with numerous successful projects.