FR2713308A3 - Automatic isolation of machine to allow maintenance - Google Patents

Abstract

The maintenance procedure makes use of a mobile data processor (4). The mobile unit can store (42) data on the different machines in an industrial installation, and has a reader (41) for coded identification data associated with each machine. The reader also gathers data (11,12,21,22) on operating status associated with each machine. The machines have data displayed in bar code format so it can be read optically. The mobile unit compares (43) gathered data with stored data, and displays (44) data and its validation information. The data is transmitted to a central computer (5) that can receive and transmit data from and to various mobile units. The operator is advised from the display on the mobile unit which controls (1,2) should be operated.

Description

Automated check-in and check-out system
an industrial installation comprising several
organs to be consigned or consigned.

 The present invention relates to the procedures for consignment-deconsignment of industrial installations and the means used during this procedure.

 To carry out maintenance operations on any industrial installation or part of this installation, it is necessary to record the machines or apparatus which may present risks for the personnel responsible for these operations, in particular risks of an electrical, mechanical or related nature. the presence of fluids.

 The entire lockout procedure must therefore result in isolating the part of the installation on which the intervention is to be carried out, i.e. eliminating the risk of injury or damage of all kinds that personnel could incur. These risks are essentially of three types: electrical (electrocution), mechanical (movement of machine parts), fluids (contact with fluids, possibly under pressure).

 To avoid these risks, personnel must therefore be prevented from coming into contact with live parts, mobile mechanical parts, dangerous fluids, etc.

For this, the primary purpose of the deposit is to separate the part of the installation concerned from sources of electricity or energy, in whatever form.

 In practice, the consignment therefore consists in manipulating control members, such as switches, valves, etc., to make them pass from a state of service into a state of decommissioning or state of safety.

 The recording procedure of an installation can thus include numerous manipulations to be performed, on as many control members.

 For example, in a steel plant, the number of consignable points, i.e. organs on which one can act to consign all or part of the installation, can reach 12,000 just for a train hot rolling, of which 2,200 only for the "roughing" part of this train.

 In addition, the different bodies to be locked in as part of a lockout procedure can be located far from each other, even when the installation part to be locked out is reduced. In addition, it may be necessary to record the different organs in a specific order.

 The service responsible for consignments has a "consignathèque", that is to say a directory of consignments to be made to consign each part of the installation. When a maintenance or repair intervention must be carried out on a part of the installation, the service concerned makes a request for work. By means of a document called "workstation conditioning sheet", the centralization of the consignment service sends in response, from the consignathèque, a list of consignments which indicates all the consignments to be made so that the work requested can be carried out without risk to intervention personnel.

 Consignment sheets, indicating the body or organs to be consigned, are sent to the intervention services concerned, generally the mechanical maintenance service or electrical maintenance. On receipt of these lockout requests, the electrician or mechanic takes the lockout sheet, locates the lockout device (s), goes to the site, makes the lockout (disconnector opening, circuit breaker drawout, valve closure ... etc), and places a sign "Defense to engage" with part of the log sheet and returns to the centralizer another part of the sheet to confirm that the log is made.

 When the centralizer has received all the required consignment confirmations, it issues the work authorization for the part of the installation thus secured.

 When this work is finished and the centralizer has been notified, it can start the deconsigning operation which is carried out in the opposite direction to the consignment. When all the disconnections have been made, the installation is again available for recommissioning.

 It will be readily understood that the known procedure described above is very cumbersome and takes a long time, because it requires numerous transfers of paper documents between the consignment service and the personnel who carry out these consignments, via their respective services. The time spent solely on check-in and check-out operations can even be very long and disproportionate to the time required for the work that led to these procedures, all the more so since the devices to be recorded are distant from each other and that the consignments must follow a chronology which can lead to several back and forth between these devices.

 For example, a lockout procedure for maintenance work on an installation may require 1,000 lockouts and takes several hours.

 During the recording procedure of an installation, it is necessary, for security reasons, to carry out numerous checks: checking the emissions of the record sheets, checking the recordings made, checking their chronology ... etc. All these control operations carried out manually from paper documents which circulate between the various departments concerned are extremely costly in time, all the more so since during these operations, the installations are stopped. Other problems can also be added, such as loss of certain paper documents, error on the device to be recorded, incomplete recording operation.

 The object of the present invention is to solve these problems and is particularly aimed at reducing the duration of the deposit and withdrawal procedures, while retaining and even increasing the required security.

More specifically, the invention aims to
- delete paper documents and their transmission circuit as much as possible,
- optimize the preparation, recording and de-registration and control times, and therefore reduce the installation downtime,
- remove possible errors on the recognition of depositable points and on the status of the devices concerned,
- guarantee that the required chronology of consignments and consignments is respected.

With these objectives in view, the subject of the invention is a system for depositing and releasing an industrial installation comprising several depositable organs, characterized
- in that it comprises at least one mobile information processing unit comprising means for storing data relating to the various bodies to be recorded, and means for reading coded information connected to the mobile unit,
- in that said organs include means of information giving combined information on the identity of each organ and on the recorded or disconnected state of this organ, readable by reading means only when the organ is in the said state,
- in that the mobile unit also includes means for comparing the information read with the stored data, to validate this information, and display means for giving indications on the data, the information read and their validation.

 The invention makes it possible to suppress, or at least to greatly reduce the quantity of paper documents necessary for proceeding to the recording of an installation and to the controls of the various recording operations and therefore, to reduce the processing time of the information. The operator responsible for consignments no longer has to make manual entries on consignment sheets, and above all the risk of error on the identification of the organs to be consigned and on their state, is eliminated. Indeed, the entry of this information can only be carried out on the predefined organ, and only when this organ is in the state which makes legible the means of information specific to said organ and to its state, and it cannot be validated only if this information corresponds to the data stored in the mobile processing unit.

 Thus, in the case where the device to be recorded is for example a disconnector of an electric circuit, the only means of information accessible to reading when the disconnector is closed, ie in the normal operating position to ensure the passage of current , simultaneously identify the disconnector considered and its closed state.

 Reading this information therefore makes it possible to certify that the disconnector considered is indeed the one whose data has been loaded into the mobile unit and which is to be recorded in the open position.

 Only the opening operation of this disconnector will make accessible the information relating to its identity and its open state, and their reading will attest that the disconnector is indeed the same as that on which the previous reading was made, and that it is is in its locking position, that is to say open, to interrupt the electrical circuit.

 An essential characteristic of the invention is that each reading of information associates the identity of the organ to be recorded and its state, which eliminates the risk of reading on an organ the information on the identity of this organ, and erroneously read information about the status of another organ.

 Advantageously, the system also comprises a central unit for transmitting, receiving and processing data and information, and means for transmitting this data and information between the central unit and the mobile unit or units.

 Thus, during a recording procedure of an installation, comprising numerous organs to be recorded, the data relating to the different recording operations can be distributed over several mobile units, for example to separate the recording operations to be carried out on circuits. electrical of those to be performed on fluid circuits, and / or to distribute these operations by geographic areas of the installation. The central unit transmits the data thus distributed to the various mobile units, and in return, after the recording operations assigned to each mobile unit have been carried out and validated at the level of these units, the corresponding information is retransmitted to the central unit who can thus validate all the lockout operations of the organs, attest to the lockout of the installation and give authorization to carry out the work requested on this installation.

 According to a preferred arrangement, the reading means are optical readers of coded information, and the means of information on the recordable organs are coded information carriers, each of these information carriers carrying a specific visual code of the 'identity and of a recorded or disconnected state of said organ and being concealed when the organ is not in the state corresponding to the state defined by said code.

This provision makes it possible in particular to use the deposit system on preexisting installations, by the simple affixing, on each depositable organ of the installation, of information supports, so as to allow their reading only when the organs are in the adequate position. In addition, this arrangement, using an optical reading system, makes the system compatible with the use of paper documents, on which the codes can be printed, for example in order to provide additional security by doubling the transmission system. of data between mobile units and central unit by transmission of printed documents, or to allow data to be changed from such documents.

 However, other support and information reading systems could be used, for example magnetic support and reading systems.

 The invention also relates to a device for cutting off an electrical or fluid circuit, characterized in that it carries two coded information carriers, each of these carriers carrying a specific code identifying the organ. and of a closed or open state of the member, and being arranged so as to be concealed when the member is not in the open or closed position corresponding to the state defined by the code and to be accessible to reading when the organ is in said position. In particular, the member may include manual control means and the information carriers are alternately concealed by these control means when passing from a service position to an out-of-service position, which facilitates the adaptation of the information carriers on organs of a preexisting type, without significant modification thereof, and makes it possible to easily restore the identification of an organ of an installation in the event of its replacement by a replacement organ, possibly usable elsewhere in the installation.

 However, information carriers can also be permanently included in the structure of the organ and alternatively concealed or exposed by a part of this structure.

The subject of the invention is also a procedure for depositing and canceling an industrial installation comprising several depositable organs, characterized in that
- data, defining each organ to be recorded and the recording operations to be carried out, are loaded into a mobile processing unit provided with an information reader,
- an operator in charge of consignments and provided with the mobile processing unit goes to a recordable organ indicated by said processing unit, reads with the reader a first information carrier affixed to the organ and visible when the organ is in a disconnected position, the information being representative of the organ considered and of a state of deconsignment of this organ,
- the information read is compared with the data loaded in the mobile processing unit, which validates the entry of information when the results of the comparison confirm that the body whose information has been read is indeed the body to be recorded,
- when the entry is validated, the operator performs the recording operation of the organ by manipulating its control means, which conceals the first information medium and brings up a second information medium carrying information representative of the organ and its lockout state, and visible only when the organ is in a lockout position,
- the operator reads with the reader the second information medium, the information read being introduced and stored in the mobile processing unit which, in response, validates or not the recording made.

 Preferably, the data is loaded into the mobile unit from a central unit containing in memory a logging program defining all the logging operations to be carried out to carry out the logging of the installation and their chronology, and, when the operations of organ lockout are carried out and validated by the mobile processing unit, the corresponding information is transmitted to the central unit, where it is compared to the lockout program, to validate the lockout of the installation.

 Also preferably, the data loaded into the mobile processing unit define a chronology of the recording operations to be carried out, and if the reading of the information of a recordable organ does not correspond to the chronology, taking into account the information previously stored in the mobile processing unit, this emits an error message.

 Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear in the description which will be given by way of example, of a system and of a procedure for recording and withdrawing, in accordance with the invention, of a steel plant such as than a hot rolling train.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which
FIG. 1 schematically represents the entire system, with the various elements which compose it,
FIG. 2 represents a cut-off member of an electrical circuit, in accordance with the invention, in a service position or disconnected position and the reading operation for identification of this member,
FIG. 3 represents the same member in an out-of-service position, or lockout position, and the read operation for identification of the member and validation of the lockout,
- Figures 4 and 5 show another switching device according to the invention, respectively in an operating position and an out of service position.

 The installation to be recorded includes a plurality of lockable elements, such as disconnectors 1, valves 2 or circuit breakers 3, which must be put in the safety position to ensure the safety of the personnel brought to intervene on the installation.

Generally, the electrical circuit cut-off members such as a disconnector, circuit breaker, etc., must be put in the open position, and the fluid circuit cut-off members, such as valves, must be closed. This is called the deposit of these organs, the deposit of the installation or of a part of the installation being carried out when all the organs, determined by a preset deposit program and specific to the procedure of of each installation, or of each part of an installation, are recorded. When the intervention is finished, the installation must be disconnected according to a similar procedure, the deconsignment of the installation being carried out by the deconsignment of all the organs previously consigned.

 The recording and delinking system represented in FIG. 1 comprises a central unit for transmitting, receiving and processing the data and information necessary to carry out the recording and delinking procedures of the installation and to ensure its control and validation, such as a central computer 5.

 The central computer 5 is connected to preparation terminals 51, by which an operator indicates to the central computer 5 the recording procedure to be carried out. The central computer 5 has in memory a library of consignments listing, for each possible installation consignment, the organs to be consigned, the chronology to be observed for the consignment of these organs, and the distribution of these consignments by type of organs ( electrical circuit control devices, or fluid circuit control, etc.) and by geographic area of the installation.

 The central computer 5 is connected by means 6 of data transmission to mobile information processing units, such as portable microcomputers 4.

 In the case of a large installation, these transmission means 6 comprise microcomputers 61, located in each of the departments responsible for effecting the recording of the organs. The microcomputers 61 are connected by cable to the central computer 5, and receive therefrom the data relating to the deposit operations to be carried out by the service concerned. They can also serve, if necessary, as data entry or control stations for the consignment operations assigned to them.

 The portable microcomputers 4 can be connected to the microcomputers 61, by a temporary wired connection or by any other means of data transmission, for example by a transmission by infrared rays 62, to ensure between them, in both directions, the transmission of data or information. The main role of the microcomputers 61 is to ensure the loading, in the portable microcomputers 4, of data originating from the central unit 5, and the unloading towards the central computer, of the information recorded in the microcomputers portable.

 The portable microcomputers are equipped with means for reading coded information, such as infrared barcode readers 41. They include means 42 for storing data coming from the central computer or microcomputers 61, means 43 for comparing information coming from the reader 41 with the data, to validate this information, and display means 44 for displaying indications. on the data and information read and their validation, the information read being recorded in the storage means after validation.

Each recordable organ is provided with means of information, each giving combined information on the identity of the organ considered and on its recorded or disconnected state (i.e. open or closed, or in service or out of service. )
Only two of these members have been shown by way of example in FIG. 1, but it is clear that these can be very numerous, for example several thousand for a large installation.

 The member designated by the reference 1 is a disconnector of an electrical circuit, comprising a manual control means 13.

 As can be seen more clearly in FIGS. 2 and 3, the disconnector 1 is provided with 2 coded information carriers, here in the form of a bar code, practically constituted by labels 11, 12 fixed on the disconnector. The control lever 13 carries a cover flap 14. The label 11 carries a barcode representative of the disconnector 1 and of its open state. The bar codes have been predetermined according to their assignment to the disconnector 1, and, throughout the installation, no other lockable device has the same bar code.

 In the closed position of the disconnector 1, shown in FIG. 2, only the label 11 carrying the code representative of this closed state is visible and therefore accessible for reading by the reader 41 the label 12 is hidden by the cover flap 14 .

 In the open position of the disconnector, shown in FIG. 3, only the label 12 is visible, the label 11 being hidden by the cover flap, following the manipulation of the control lever 13.

 An arrangement similar to that described above can be used on other lockable elements, such as for example a valve 2, shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1, provided with two labels 21, 22 each carrying an exclusive barcode representative of the valve and its open or closed state.

 In the drawings of FIGS. 4 and 5, another lockable member has been shown such as a circuit breaker 3. In FIG. 4, the circuit breaker is shown in the operating position, closed, its control lever 33 being oriented upwards and showing a label 32 which carries the barcode specific to circuit breaker 3 and to its "closed" position.

 In FIG. 5, the circuit breaker is in the "open" position and reveals another label 31, the label 32 being made invisible by the downward pivoting of the control lever 33.

 The same principle is applicable to any other organ which must be able to be recorded, with the aid of possible adaptations, easily achievable by a person skilled in the art, on the location of the information carriers and the means making it possible to conceal them, these means being able to be either linked to the control means of the organs, or to parts of the very structure of these organs.

 We will now describe a procedure for recording an installation, in accordance with the invention.

 Such an installation is commonly the subject of various types of maintenance intervention, most often planned. Prior to the maintenance work to be carried out, the preparers must plan to shut down and bring to a safe state the various devices and machines on which it is necessary to intervene, with an electrical and mechanical lockout procedure, and to carry out the return to service of the installation, once the intervention has ended, by a deconsignation procedure.

 When a maintenance intervention must be carried out, a work request is issued and transmitted to the service responsible for consignments. This work request indicates the devices or machines concerned by the intervention. Upon receipt of this request, the information relating thereto is entered into the central computer 5 by an operator by means of the preparation terminals 51.

 In the event that there is no predefined recording program corresponding to the work to be carried out, such a program is established by the operator, who defines all the organs to be recorded, their mode of recording and their chronology.

 If there is already in the logging library stored in the central computer a suitable logging program for the planned intervention, the computer extracts this program, distributes and transfers the corresponding data to the microcomputers 61, located for example one in the electrical maintenance department, another in the mechanical maintenance department, etc.

 At each of these stations, the data is recorded and then transferred again to a portable microcomputer 4, or distributed over several portable microcomputers, for example in the case where the organs to be recorded are located far from each other, this in order to to be able to make several lockouts at the same time by several operators, each equipped with a portable microcomputer.

 Each of these operators then goes to the installation. His microcomputer tells him which is the first organ to record. Arrived on the spot, he reads (figure 2) with the reader 41 the label 11 affixed on this member 1 and only visible.

 If the information read corresponds to the data loaded into the portable microcomputer which defines the organ to be consigned and its state of disconnection, the reading is validated and the operator is notified thereof by an audible signal or a display on the screen 44. Otherwise an error message is provided, indicating that the device on which the reading was made is not the correct one, or possibly that it is not in the expected state. This information is stored in the laptop.

 When the reading is validated, the operator maneuvers (arrow F in FIG. 3) the control means 13 of the member (lever, lever, operating wheel, etc.), which makes the sight of it disappear. label 11 and discovers label 12, which carries the code identifying the organ and its locking position.

 The operator reads this code by means of the reader 41 (FIG. 3). The information read is compared with the data stored in the portable microcomputer, which gives a validation message in response. The operator then affixes on the organ a sign indicating that this organ is consigned and must not be operated. If the operator had inadvertently read any other label, an error signal would have been supplied, which requires that the label corresponding to the organ and its recorded position be read, before being able to continue the operations of consignment of other bodies. When the information is validated, it is also stored in the laptop.

 After validation of the recording of the first organ, the portable computer displays the information relating to the second organ to be recorded, and so on until all the operations of recording corresponding to the data loaded in the portable microcomputer have been carried out and validated .

 The operator then returns to the microcomputer 61, where he unloads the information stored in his laptop, this information then being retransmitted to the central computer which validates the recording of the installation when all the information received in return from the microcomputers. computers correspond to the predefined logging program, and can then issue authorization for the requested work.

 When these works are finished, an end of works sheet is communicated to the consignment manager, who enters the corresponding information in the central computer, which defines the system's deconsignment program and transfers the corresponding information to the microcomputers, the procedure of consignment taking place in a similar way to that of consignment.

 The invention is not limited to the system, the means used, and the procedure, described above only by way of example.

 In particular, the information on the identity and the state of each organ can be provided in the form of optical codes other than the barcode, or even in the form of magnetic codes, the readers then being chosen accordingly.

 Data and information can also be transmitted directly from the central computer to mobile processing units.

 The loading of the data in the portable microcomputers can also be carried out either directly, or by the intermediary of processing units with fixed station, by reading codes of operations of consignment printed on documents of consignment.

 The invention applies to any industrial installation capable of being totally or

Claims (10)

 1. Lockout and drawdown system for an industrial installation comprising several lockable bodies (1, 2), characterized  - in that it comprises at least one mobile unit (4) for processing information comprising means (42) for storing data relating to the various organs to be recorded, and means (41) for reading connected coded information to the mobile unit,  - in that said organs include means of information (11, 12, 21, 22) giving combined information on the identity of each organ and on the recorded or unrecognized state of this organ, readable by means ( 41) reading only when the organ is in said state,  - in that the mobile unit also includes means (43) for comparing the information read with the stored data, to validate this information, and display means (44) for giving indications on the data, the information read and their validation.  2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it also comprises a central unit (5) for transmitting, receiving and processing data and information, and means (6) for transmitting this data and information between the central unit (5) and the mobile unit or units (4).  3. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the reading means (41) are optical readers of coded information, and the information means on the recordable organs are coded information carriers (11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32), each of these information carriers carrying a specific visual code of the identity and a recorded or unrecognized state of said organ and being concealed when the organ (1, 2, 3) is not in the state corresponding to the state defined by said code.  4. System according to claim 3, characterized in that the information is coded by a bar code.  5. Organ (1, 2, 3) recordable for cutting off an electrical or fluid circuit, characterized in that it carries two supports (11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32) of coded information, each of these supports carrying a specific identification code of the organ (1, 2, 3) and of a state of closing or opening of the organ, and being arranged so as to be concealed when the organ n is not in the open or closed position corresponding to the state defined by the code and to be accessible for reading when the member is in said position.  6. Body according to claim 5, characterized in that it comprises manual control means (13, 23, 33), and the information carriers are concealed alternately by these control means.  7. Body according to one of claims 5 or 6, characterized in that the information carriers (11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32) carry bar codes.  8. Procedure for depositing and canceling an industrial installation comprising several depositable organs (1, 2, 3) according to one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that  - data, defining each organ to be recorded and the recording operations to be carried out, are loaded into a mobile processing unit (4) provided with an information reader (41),  - an operator in charge of consignments provided with the mobile processing unit (4) goes to a lockable organ (1, 2, 3) indicated by said processing unit (4), reads with the reader (41) a first information carrier (11, 21, 31) affixed to the member (1, 2, 3) and visible when the member is in a disconnected position, the information being representative of the member considered and of a state deconsignation of this body,  - the information read is compared with the data loaded in the mobile processing unit (4), which validates the entry of information when the results of the comparison confirm that the organ whose information has been read is indeed the organ to be record,  - when the entry is validated, the operator performs the operation of recording the organ by manipulating its control means (13, 23, 33), which conceals the first information medium (11, 21, 31) and shows a second information medium (12, 22, 32) carrying information representative of the organ and of its recording state, and visible only when the organ is in a locking position,  - the operator reads with the reader (41) the second information medium (12, 22, 32), the information read being introduced and stored in the mobile processing unit (4) which, in response, validates or not the deposit made.  9. Logging procedure according to claim 8, characterized in that the data are loaded into the mobile unit (4) from a central unit (5) containing in memory a logging program defining all the logging operations to to carry out the recording of the installation, and their chronology and, when the recording operations of the organs are carried out and validated by the mobile processing unit, the corresponding information is transmitted to the central unit, where it is compared with the logging program, to validate the logging of the installation.  10. Logging procedure according to one of claims 8 or 9, characterized in that the data loaded in the mobile processing unit (4) define a chronology of the logging operations to be carried out, and whether the reading of the information a recordable organ does not correspond to the chronology, taking into account the information previously stored in the mobile processing unit, the latter emits an error message.