Posted by The Webmaster on September 29, 2009 under ISA News | 
Lisa Long, Safety Engineer with the U.S. Department of Labor-OSHA, will present a keynote address at ISA EXPO 2009 in Houston, TX, on 8 October titled, “Overview and Findings from OSHA’s Refinery and Chemical National Emphasis Programs.”
As Safety Engineer at the U.S. DOL-OSHA for the past two years, Ms. Long has primarily focused on Process Safety Management. Prior to working at the U.S. DOL-OSHA, Ms. Long was an investigator at the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, where she led several major investigations involving chemical facilities. Prior to working in U.S. government, she worked for 12 years for several major chemical companies in positions including, process engineering and production management.
In her presentation abstract, Long notes that “following a large number of fatal or catastrophic incidents in the petroleum refining industry, OSHA launched a significant Process Safety Management (PSM) enforcement program; the Petroleum Refinery National Emphasis Program (NEP) was initiated in June 2007. A similar NEP was launched for the chemical industry in July 2009. Both programs use a newly developed inspection protocol to inspect petroleum refineries and chemical plants under federal jurisdiction.”
Long’s presentation will describe the Refinery and Chemical NEP inspection protocol and procedures, and will review preliminary findings from the Refinery NEP, including data on the most frequently cited paragraphs of the PSM standards and example citation language.
“Safety is a top concern from the plant floor up in industry today,” said ISA Director of Convention Services, Dale Lee. “We are honored to have Ms. Long address ISA EXPO attendees on such a critical subject.”
The ISA EXPO 2009 conference will feature six Exchange Conference Tracks centered on key issues facing instrumentation, automation, and control professionals. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss best practices, lessons learned, and potential solutions to specific automation problems as part of the conference’s technology exchange format.
For more information about ISA EXPO 2009, or to register, visit www.isa.org/isaexpo, or call + 1 (919) 549 8411.
Posted by The Webmaster on under ISA News |
ISA will bring the Wireless and Networking Exchange to ISA EXPO 2009 at the Reliant Center, Houston, Texas, USA, on 6-8 October 2009.
The wireless and networking exchange technical conference sessions will cover information on every mode of industrial networking, including wireless, fieldbuses and protocols, fiber optics, industrial Ethernet, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), signal compatibility, safety buses, EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language), FDT, network selection, and ISA-100 wireless standards. Conference presenters include experts from Ford, Boeing, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, PPG, Anheuser-Busch, Shell, Bechtel, and more.
Just announced, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will offer a one-day workshop for wireless sensors for the factory floor on Tuesday, 6 October at ISA EXPO 2009. The workshop, titled “Future Directions and Priorities for 21st Century Agile Manufacturing,” will help identify industry needs, define current and future challenges, and highlight end-user priorities in using wireless sensors for shop floor applications to achieve 21st century agile manufacturing. Results of the workshop will help set future directions for research and development and set the basis for new standards.
Those interested in learning more about or attending this free workshop should contact Kang Lee at kang.lee@nist.gov.
For more information about the Wireless and Networking Exchange or the one-day workshop, visit www.isa.org/expo or call + 1 919 549 8411.
Posted by The Webmaster on September 23, 2009 under ISA News |
Industrial security takes center stage at ISA EXPO 2009 on Wednesday, 7 October featuring presentations by security experts with U.S. Department of Homeland Security experience, as well as a groundbreaking hack and defend tutorial and demonstration on wireless security.
Securing the Nation’s Industrial Control Systems Infrastructure
Sean McGurk, DHS Director, Control Systems Security Program (CSSP), will present the ISA EXPO 2009 Keynote Presentation. In his presentation, entitled “Securing the Nation’s Industrial Control Systems Infrastructure”, McGurk will discuss the current threat landscape, common vulnerabilities and security issues facing critical infrastructure control systems, and mitigation strategies being developed to address these challenges. He will also discuss current program efforts including how to become directly involved in securing the Nation’s critical infrastructure control.
Industrial Security and the Political Control System: A View from Washington
Greg Garcia, President, Garcia Strategies, LLC, will deliver the featured presentation, entitled “Industrial Security and the Political Control System: A View from Washington”. Garcia served as the nation’s first Presidentially-appointed Assistant Secretary for Cyber Security and Communications (CS&C) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, from 2006-2008. During his tenure, the U.S.Department of Homeland Security affirmed the urgency of cyber security across the nation and embarked on a comprehensive cyber initiative that will measurably strengthen the security of our nation’s networks against domestic and international threats.
Live Hack and Defend Industrial Wireless Systems Demonstration
Wednesday’s security spotlight will also feature a live “Hack and Defend Industrial Wireless Systems” demonstration. The never-been-done-before wireless hack and defend tutorial session will give attendees the chance to learn techniques about breaking and defending wireless systems, as well as pose questions to the experts.
ISA Security Lounge
The ISA Security Lounge will offer meet-and-greet opportunities with ISA EXPO keynoters—including Sean McGurk and Greg Garcia, industry leaders, recognized professionals, presentations, and running demonstrations of cyber security related topics of interest featured during the technical conference.
The ISA EXPO 2009 conference will feature six Exchange Conference Tracks centered on key issues facing instrumentation, automation, and control professionals, including a dedicated track on industrial security. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss best practices, lessons learned, and potential solutions to specific automation problems as part of the conference’s technology exchange format.
For more information about ISA EXPO 2009, and registration, visit www.isa.org/expo, or call + 1-919-549-8411.
Posted by The Webmaster on September 15, 2009 under ISA News |
The ISA Standards & Practices Board (S&P) has voted to approve the ISA-100.11a wireless standard “Wireless Systems for Industrial Automation: Process Control and Related Applications,” thereby making it an official ISA Standard. The approval of this major new industry standard by the ISA S&P Board certifies that ISA’s accredited procedures have been followed in the development of the standard.
The ISA-100.11a standard received final approval by the ISA100 committee in July of this year with 81% of the voting members approving, before being passed along to the ISA S&P Board. With the ISA S&P Board approval, the ISA-100.11a standard will now be submitted to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for approval as an ANSI standard, and will be submitted to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for consideration as an IEC standard.
“The ISA-100.11a standard was developed by a committee consisting of over 600 end users and equipment manufacturers from around the world, and represents a truly consensus standard created in an open, unbiased forum by a global team of industry experts,” said Wayne Manges, ISA100 co-chair from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The ISA100 committee was established by ISA to address wireless manufacturing and control systems in areas including:
- the environment in which the wireless technology is deployed;
- technology and life cycle for wireless equipment and systems; and
- the application of wireless technology
“The committee has been very active in pursuing its charter and I am delighted that this initial standard has been issued,” said Manges.
The ISA-100.11a standard is intended to provide reliable and secure wireless operation for non-critical monitoring, alerting, supervisory control, open loop control, and closed loop control applications. The standard defines the protocol suite, system management, gateway, and security specifications for low-data-rate wireless connectivity with fixed, portable, and moving devices supporting very limited power consumption requirements. The application focus addresses the performance needs of applications such as monitoring and process control where latencies on the order of 100 ms can be tolerated, with optional behavior for shorter latency.
“To meet the needs of industrial wireless users and operators, the ISA-100.11a standard provides robustness in the presence of interference found in harsh industrial environments and with legacy non-ISA-100 compliant wireless systems,” said ISA100 co-chair Pat Schweitzer of ExxonMobil. The standard addresses coexistence with other wireless devices anticipated in the industrial workspace, such as cell phones and devices based on IEEE 802.11x, IEEE 802.15x, IEEE 802.16x, and other relevant standards. Further, the standard allows for interoperability of ISA-100 devices.
The standard is available at www.isa.org/ISA100-11a. For more information on the full scope of ISA100 committee activity, visit ISA100.org or call +1-919-549-8411.
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