Knorr-Bremse
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Knorr-Bremse
meets IEC 61508 Functional Safety
requirements using ITEM ToolKit
The generic
functional safety standard has hit the automotive industry hard. As per
IEC 61508 safety is defined as, "Freedom from unacceptable risk to personal
injury or of damage to the health of people, either directly or indirectly
as a result of damage to property or to the environment". Functional safety
is a part of the overall safety that depends on a system functioning correctly
under normal operation. As a manufacturer of braking systems for rail
and commercial vehicles, Knorr-Bremse used ITEM ToolKit™ to extend
their traditional FMEA analysis to a fully functional safety analysis.
With the assistance of ITEM Software's business partner AirPlan Engineering,
Knorr-Bremse ventured away from the traditional FMEA analysis to an integrated
and traceable functional safety analysis. The digital control-braking
unit was analysed using Item ToolKit's prediction modules (MIL217 & RDF
2000) to identify weak areas in the design and improve the overall reliability.
This was followed by an FMEA to identify single point failures and hazards.
Following the IEC 61508 approach, the FMEA was converted and dynamically
linked to a complex modular fault tree analysis in four mouse clicks.
More than 130 sub-trees were integrated into one master tree by this unique
approach of ITEM ToolKit™ to understand a multifaceted safety analysis
without loosing traceability on individual equipment functional contributions.
Project Manager Christoph Bauer stated, "We were delighted with the strategy
of a fully integrated and structured approach to quantitative safety analysis.
The FMEA is no longer a standalone result but a rather important link
between the high level single failure analysis and the more complex safety
function and risk analysis with the Fault Tree and Event Tree modules".
He continued, "In particular the modular Fault Tree and full cut set evaluation
of our Event Tree module accurately calculated fault tolerances and probabilities
of the braking system".
About Knorr-Bremse
A leading manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles,
Knorr- Bremse has been pioneering development, production and marketing
of modern braking systems for a variety of applications for 100 years,
making an important contribution to improved safety on the railways and
the roads. The company also produces door systems for rail vehicles and
torsional dampers.
