Bloqueio automatizado para atendimento à NR-13 em uma indústria cervejeira

Abstract

Safety in the handling of pressure vessels is a critical point in industrial environments, since improper use or failure to carry out inspections within the required deadlines poses significant risks. In Brazil, Regulatory Standard No. 13 (NR-13) establishes strict rules for the operation of these devices, and compliance is essential to protect lives, facilities, and the environment. This work presents a practical solution for the automated lockout of pressure vessels, aligned with NR-13 inspection deadlines. The motivation arose from the observation that manually tracking these deadlines is prone to errors, compromising process reliability. The proposed solution combines an automation flow built in Node-RED, which acts as the brain of the system, with industrial communication using the OPC UA protocol connected to a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The mechanism developed issues alerts in the supervisory system 90 days before the inspection expires. If the inspection is not carried out in time, the PLC automatically triggers the physical lockout of the equipment, preventing it from continuing to operate irregularly. In this way, this work introduces a technological innovation that ensures full compliance with NR-13, increases operational safety, and eliminates the occurrence of pressure vessels operating with overdue inspections.