Redbusbar IsolationPoint lockout procedure and management program

The IsolationPoint lockout procedure and management program uses a PDA to execute energy isolation procedures to provide accurate and efficient equipment lockout.

Maintenance engineers in mining and industrial sites address the risk of inaccurate isolations by having two people execute isolation procedures, to crosscheck equipment identification and avoid mistakes. Mistakes still occur as the approach is exposed to common cause, trust or distraction-related failures. A difficulty is that modular plant design methods yield multiple process trains within the plant that appear identical. In addition, the use of long equipment identifiers facilitates errors.

IsolationPoint comprises an isolation procedure library located on a PC and a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) as the means to execute isolation procedures. When required, an isolation procedure is scheduled for execution onto the PDA. The isolation officer then follows the isolation steps specified in the procedure and uses the PDA’s barcode or RFID scanner to verify isolation point identity. When the procedure is complete, time-stamped progress information is archived to the PC. Using this approach, the program enhances safety, uses fewer people and requires less administration.