Increased rupture disc reliability for high integrity hazardous applications

With ever increasing safety standards and environmental considerations for process plants in today’s demanding climate, the need for burst detection alongside rupture (bursting) discs is vital to quickly identify when a disc has burst. Customers are now seeking increasingly advanced systems to provide this detection without stretching budgets.

For over a decade, Elfab’s unique Flo-Tel™ technology has offered customers across a wide range of industries a cost effective ATEX Zone 1 compatible, non-invasive, failsafe and reusable burst detection system. Flo-Tel? offers unprecedented advantages, from triggering alarms to the shutting down of a process. IECEx approval also certifies the Flo-Tel? system for use internationally in the most hazardous of environments. Following the success of this original Flo-Tel™ technology, Elfab successfully launched its Exd-approved version, negating the need for intrinsically safe barriers and interfacing directly with the customer remote terminal unit to significantly reduce installation costs.

In line with recent developments within high integrity industries, Elfab has further quantified the reliability of its detection systems in hazardous processes by attaining Safety Integrity Level (SIL) ratings for its Flo-Tel™ and Flo-Tel™ XD products. Using generally recognised models for risk assessment and risk reduction such as SIL, engineers are now finding this an effective way to improve a systems overall safety. The oil and gas, and chemical and pharmaceutical industries in particular have seen the advantage of replacing traditional burst detection systems with their non-invasive, SIL rated counterparts. When upgrading their pressure relief devices and associated detection, many plants have witnessed an end to the spurious alarms and subsequent downtime previously caused by unreliable or easily damaged membrane type burst detectors. Cost savings of tens of thousands of pounds are now being made using Elfab’s reliable magnetic Flo-Tel™ technology.

Adapted from press release by Rosalie Starling

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/product-news/26052015/increased-rupture-disc-reliability-for-high-integrity-hazardous-applications-836/