STATE OF THE ART AND DEVELOPMENT PROSPECTS OF FUNCTIONAL SAFETY NORMS AND STANDARDS

Abstract

Aim. Familiarizing the readers with the state of the art and development prospects of functional safety norms and standards in the Russian Federation. As the safety of any product, service or process is its second most important characteristic after the function, safety-related systems (SRSs) are widely used in order to ensure the safety of industrial, transportation, energy, communication and critical facilities, buildings and structures, urban infrastructure, as well as machines, equipment and vehicles. Unfortunately, since 1980’s the technologies used in the development of the SRSs have not gained full traction in Russia. As the result, a conservative approach is in use that often involves excessive requirements, which increases the cost of the developed safety systems but usually does not guarantee compliance with the requirements. Currently, functional safety (FS) is recognized globally as the primary SRSs characteristic, that indicates the probability of successful performance by the system of the safety function(s) under the given conditions within the given time period. Methods. Globally, the implementation, further development and practical application of the FS method is based on the development and application of a large number of regulatory documents at the international, regional and national levels, that help organize and perform activities related to the assessment and FS requirements compliance confirmation for a wide range of SRSs. In order to ensure methodological support and coordination of the activities aimed at the development of FS-related regulatory framework in the Russian Federation in accordance with the national standard GOST R 1.1-2013 Standardization in the Russian Federation. Technical committees for standardization. Rules of organization and function, the technical committee for standardization TK 058 Functional Safety has been established, is actively working and has so far developed around 50 FS-related standards. The TK 058 standardization activities are based on the provisions of the Federal Law dated June 29, 2015 no. 162-FZ On standardization in the Russian Federation. Conclusions. As in the Russian Federation a certain FS-related regulatory framework has already been established, while the market shows demand for services of FS requirements compliance evaluation, the main task for today is to develop, using national and international requirements, organizational support, regulatory and guidance documentation that would create a fully-fledged infrastructure that implements the national institution of FS requirements compliance verification. That will ensure not only a radical reduction of the risk of disasters and accidents, but also significantly increase the competitiveness of Russian products in the internal and foreign markets.