Smart Safety — Then Chemistry Is Right

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Planar — Still the First Choice for Applications with High Risk Potential

This was the birth of the controller for the first emergency shutdown system in the process industry. The Planar system is robust and reliable, and even almost half a century later it is still the first choice for automation processes where there is an extremely high risk potential for people, assets and the environment. Even today — now in the fourth generation of the system — engineers are still soldering the wiring of the Planar devices by hand, thus permanently defining the programming of the units.

But for VP R&D and Product Management, Dr. Alexander Horch, the emergency shutdown system also represents a milestone for another reason, because in 1970 the system became the first safety system to achieve TÜV certification — thus setting a new benchmark for the industry. “For the first time, this offered operators a guarantee that the system would work correctly, a guarantee that was valid all around the world,” explains Horch. And, by the way, this is a route that Hima has rigorously continued to follow. Every controller bears the TÜV hallmark. The same applies to the subject of standards for functional safety, where Philipp emphasizes that the company has a strong voice thanks to its exceptional technical expertise.

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“Smart Is a State of Mind”

Core Competence: Safety

With Planar, Hima writes itself into the history books of safety technology and spearheads a development that continues to this day. “The shut-down concept we developed then is still at the heart of Hima safety technology today. We keep refining and optimizing it. Safety technology is our core competence, and it is what we will keep doing,” is how Philipp explains the company philosophy — with a generous portion of understatement. After all, today the engineers at Hima develop safety concepts for the process, oil, gas and railway industries.

The control cabinets that house the safety controllers have long ceased working in isolation and instead have evolved into complete solutions, planned with the engineering tool Silworx and involving Safe Ethernet communications. All in the service of the operators, who have piece of mind thanks to solutions from Hima.

Hima Has Been Playing in the First Division Since the Ichthys LNG Project

Another important highlight in the success story of the company is the Ichthys LNG project off the coast of Australia. Ichthys is one of the most significant energy projects in the world, and for Hima it is a project of the highest magnitude, one that has catapulted the Brühl-based company right into the top division. “With this project, we demonstrated that we can keep up with the really big players,” says Philipp.

There were a number of LNG projects at the time, but the Japanese operating company Inpex wanted to incorporate the whole chain of development and production of LNG. The offshore and onshore equipment and plants include a floating production, storage and offloading facility as well as an offshore platform and onshore LNG plant, not to mention the associated 890 kilometers long subsea pipeline. The first ships to be loaded with Ichtys LNG left the docks at Port Darwin in 2018. In total, the plant is expected to produce up to 8.9 million tons of LNG and 1.6 million tons of LPG per day, with peak production of up to 100,000 barrels of condensate per day over the next 40 years. It is no surprise that, when faced with numbers of this magnitude, the management in Brühl does initially have some doubts as to whether the project is perhaps a step too far for the medium-sized company. But the management board eventually gives the green light to the project, and in 2009 the international project team starts work from its base in Singapore. The Hima team draws up a comprehensive safety concept and takes care of planning and installation. This is not just about safety controllers and emergency shut-down systems, but also about fire and gas safety and overpressure protection. 430 control cabinets packed with safety technology from Hima are eventually planned, supplied and installed.

Ten years of planning and construction pass — time during which a strict schedule is meticulously adhered to, before the systems are successfully taken into operation in 2018. For Horch, successful project coordination is a major factor in the on-time delivery and installation, and therefore also for the success of the project. He believes that the same thing it takes to master this type of project is exactly what characterizes the spirit of the company: “You need teams that are totally dedicated and refuse to rest until the project has been completed.”

Next Step: Microprocessors

But let us step back from the modern era and delve back into the history of the company. After 1970, everything starts to happen in quick succession — always building on state-of-the-art technology. The 1970s see the emergence of microprocessors as the dominant technology, and once again, it is the engineers of Hima who are able to incorporate the new technology in their systems. With the programmable chips it is for the first time possible to implant intelligence and reaction speed in the controllers — and 1986 sees the launch of the first TÜV-certified programmable safety system “H50.”

Thanks to Moore’s Law, information density increases at a rapid rate over the next years and the speed of technical development picks up. Programmable controllers are the global state of the art and now form the basis of all Hima controllers.

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“Our Man in Malaysia”

Hima also puts its foot on the gas and takes strategic decisions to set the path for internationalization. The emerging Asian market beckons, and Bernhard Philipp sends a representative to Malaysia. “That was me,” grins Steffen Philipp. During this period, today's Managing Partner earns his first spurs in the company.

From 1994 to 1997 he sets up the regional office on the Pacific island, before then returning home to the Electoral Palatinate region of Germany and assuming his role as Managing Partner in 1999 in the fourth generation of the family. Under his leadership, the family business emerges as a global player, and the number of employees rises from 200 then to nearly 800 now, with revenue increasing dramatically. Hima goes wherever the customers are — spread all around the globe.

According to his own claims, the qualified business economist tends to spend most of his time in an airplane, because he sees the internationalization of the company as a personal role — after all, he believes that the technology has always been ready and waiting. He builds up further locations and develops the subsidiary in Singapore into a hub for the Asian-Pacific market. Today, there are regional headquarters in Brühl (for Germany/Austria/Switzerland and for Europe and Africa), Singapore, Dubai and Houston.

Philipp gets lots of things moving internally as well. He asks himself what Hima stands for and what it needs to become even more visible as a brand in the market. The result is a strategic change process that continues to this day. The new brand identity with the positioning “Smart Safety,” which according to Philipp represents everything that makes the company what it is today, garners the 2018 German Brand Award. For Philipp, external communication is an important ingredient of the brand essence, and he sees himself as a brand ambassador.

“Hima works incredibly well as a brand, and our customers perceive us as a reliable partner who can offer decades’ worth of experience in the field of safety combined with real innovation strength,” stresses Philipp.

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