What is SIL 4?
SIL 4 is the highest level of risk reduction that can be obtained through a Safety Instrumented System. However, in the process industry this is not a realistic level and currently there are few, if any, products / systems that support this safety integrity level. SIL 4 systems are typically so complex and costly that they are not economically beneficial to implement. Additionally, if a process includes so much risk that a SIL 4 system is required to bring it to a safe state, then fundamentally there is a problem in the process design which needs to be addressed by a process change or other non-instrumented method.
