MTL Open Systems Technology (MOST), the Hampton, N.H.-based systems division of Luton, UK-based MTL Instruments, has pulled off something of a coup by persuading Honeywell to adopt the recently announced SafetyNet SIL 2 safety platform to fill a gap in its current range of Safety Instrumented System (SIS) offerings. According to MOST president Dennis Gillespie, who recently visited the United Kingdom for the European launch of SafetyNet, Honeywell has approved the MOST system and will encourage its sales teams to offer SafetyNet in situations where it has no suitable Safety Integration Level (SIL) 2 offering of its own, “rather than lose the order.”
SafetyNet is based on MOST’s open process automation platform, which it sells to Tier 2 distributed control system (DCS) vendors, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), systems integrators and end-users. It was recently certified by TüV Rheinland to SIL 2 and is already being rebadged by Houston-based SafePlex Systems for fire and gas applications as SIL-dTect 2600, for which SafePlex has also obtained approval under the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 72 standard.
“SafetyNet offers a real process control solution for lower-level safety functions with recognizable process control features such as Hart, hazardous area capability and high levels of availability, in contrast to PLC (programmable logic controller )-based solutions,” said MOST UK business development manager Dil Wetherill. He added that the group has no intention of developing the system into a SIL 3 product.
MTL is on something of a roll at present, having earlier this year pulled off a joint marketing agreement with Germany-based Weidmuller and most recently persuaded fieldbus and networking guru Ian Verhappen to join the group as director of industrial networking technologies. Verhappen, who will continue to be based in North America, will have responsibility for the development of MTL’s fieldbus products and new technologies.
About the author
Andrew Bond, [email protected], is Editor of the Industrial Automation Insider, a United Kingdom-based monthly newsletter that is delivered via e-mail.
