Smart Safety — Then Chemistry Is Right

Related Vendors

DÜPERTHAL Sicherheitstechnik GmbH & Co. KG

TURCK GmbH

EagleBurgmann Germany GmbH & Co. KG

HIMA Group

New Industry: Rail

As a brand, Hima now moves into a new industry alongside the process industry, where controllers like Himatrix and Himax or Hiquad form part of the standard equipment of a safety network. Railways also start to pay attention to the innovative family business and its safety controllers. The people responsible for rail want to move away from monopolized supply structures, and Philipp seizes this opportunity when it opens up.

“Reliability and safety play the same vital role in the rail industry that they do in the process industry,” explains Philipp. The effort is definitely worthwhile. Today, revenue in this sector accounts for a considerable portion of overall revenue and is set to grow further — a positive reflection upon the internationalization strategy.

National railways in more than 20 countries now use Hima solutions. In 2015, the company founds the new Rail business segment. This also marks the start of implementing a joint strategy including system integrators and OEMs.

Non-stop to Safety

At the end of the 1990s, Hima is the first company to pick up on the trend for Ethernet communication and develops the first SIL3 communication protocol, and Horch emphasizes that this is still state-of-the-art and still represents an important benchmark.

In 2008 — the company’s 100^th anniversary — Hima adds yet another milestone to its innovations in safety technology. Himax is the first marathon runner in the world of safety systems and the company coins the slogan “Safety Nonstop” at the time, as now for the first time adjustments can be made while operation is ongoing. This was completely revolutionary at the time — and still is today, stresses Horch, explaining that Himax is the measure of all things.

Industry 4.0 on the Horizon

Over the course of the next ten years, the pace of development picks up yet again. The reason: 2011 is the first time the phrase “Industry 4.0” is used at Hannover Messe. The digital transformation and the Internet of Things also change the process industry. Plants no longer operate independently and self-sufficiently, but instead are connected to each other and with the outside world, with processes running more and more autonomously.

This also places completely new demands in terms of functional safety. Hacker attacks on plants in the chemical and petrochemical industry shine a spotlight on the topic of cyber security. And Hima gets ready for the digital age. With immediate effect, customers can get everything they need for safety & security from a single source in Brühl.

Exclusive Interview Milestone Safety Technology

“Smart Is a State of Mind”

Smart Safety Makes Systems Fit for Digitalization

“Today, it is about much more than just uninterrupted operation and emergency shut-down procedures. Smart safety solutions offer not just highest levels of safety, but also convert data into information relevant for the business, and this in turn makes it possible to boost the productivity and profitability of industrial plants,” is how Horch explains the new challenges the company is facing.

The answer from Brühl is called the “Smart Safety Platform” and is presented for the first time in 2018 at the Achema trade show — perfectly timed for the company’s 110^th anniversary. Behind the brand new concept is a scalable SIL3 solution with which plant operators running anything from small individual applications to the complex architectures of large-scale plants can cover their complete safety and security requirements in a needs-based manner.

This is closely linked to the development of the fourth generation of the Hiquad family, in which the in-house system-on-chip technology is also installed.

But this is nowhere near the end for the perfectionists from Brühl. In the future, Hima wants to continue to be able to offer its customers the smart safety solutions they need in order to meet the challenges of digitalization.

Additional Information

Editorial Statement: That's Why Hima Deserves This Milestone

The fact that the major companies in the gas, chemicals and petrochemicals industries entrust their safety to a solution from Hima is a high accolade for the company, and nothing really needs to be added to the sheer number of 40,000 units installed in the field. But we can expect plenty more from the experts at Hima over the coming years. They have identified the increasing demand for security solutions in the age of digitalization much faster than others. Whoever acts smartly here and networks safety with security, which is what engineers in Brühl are currently doing, does not need to fear the future.

(ID:46333949)