BASF’s largest new construction project in China, the Zhanjiang Verbund Site Project (ZVSP), requires high personnel and time expenditures for tests, especially Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), Integration Factory Acceptance Test (IFAT) and loop tests. To reduce these efforts, BASF has opted for the HIMA Smart Safety Test, integral part of SILworX®, HIMA’s engineering, diagnostics and test tool which enables a flexible, automated test concept over the entire life cycle of a safety system.
The FAT and IFAT for the first segments of the plant was carried out traditionally. After the manual execution, it became clear that a new way needed to be followed in order to meet the high-ranking project objectives and to increase efficiency. This, amongst other aspects is born by the complexity of the start and stop sequences to be tested.
So, the decision was made to automate future tests with the HIMA Smart Safety Test. By doing so, fully testing of all static functions as well as the sequences got automatically tested and the test evidence got created and documented automatically.
Reflecting timelines and dimensions of this capital investment of BASF in China, new ways of implementing the safety functionalities where required to achieve the project objectives while maintaining plant safety of the highest level achievable. Based on a close collaboration between BASF and HIMA engineers a new concept for testing and verification of safety functions got implemented across the entire project.
The new solution leads to a time saving and cost reduction. In addition, the test quality and accuracy of individual tests could be optimized. Based on that a lot of small deficiencies could be found and cleaned up during the process, which resulted in a faster FAT and IFAT. Test reports that comply with the specifications, reducing a large amount of documentation – including the handling of manual test reports.
The BASF team was highly satisfied with the project quality and delivery speed, and both parties are currently exploring how to apply the smart safety test during the upcoming loop tests and automatic proof testing during the plant operations.
Peter Sieber, Vice President Strategic Marketing of HIMA Group pointed out: “This project is an excellent example of how close collaboration between a user and a solution vendor can create added value at project implementation and operation. It is also a prove of HIMA’s commitment supporting clients in making the complexity of functional safety more handable.”