failsikre

Failsikre is a term used in Scandinavian engineering to describe approaches that ensure a system remains safe or returns to a safe state when faults occur. In English-language contexts it is commonly translated as fail-safe or fault-tolerant design. The core idea is to limit the consequences of failures and prevent hazardous outcomes.

Key principles include designing for safe states by default, introducing redundancy for critical functions, isolating faults to prevent cascading errors, continuous monitoring and automatic failover, and ensuring degraded performance remains within safe limits. Documentation and verification are essential to demonstrate that the system behaves safely under representative fault conditions.

Common strategies are hardware and software redundancy, diverse implementation pathways to avoid common-mode failure, watchdog timers, health monitoring, safe shutdown procedures, and clear fault signaling to human operators. In practice, failsikre often involves defining safe states, such as idle, minimal operating mode, or powered-down condition, depending on risk assessment.

Applications span aerospace, automotive safety systems, railway signaling, industrial process control, and medical devices where hazards could arise from component failures. Industry standards such as IEC 61508, ISO 26262, and railway safety specifications describe functional-safety requirements and risk-based levels that guide failsikre design.

Terminology varies by language; failsikre is related to but not identical with fault tolerance. Failsikre emphasizes moving the system toward a safe condition on failure, whereas fault-tolerance often aims to maintain operation. The concept remains an essential part of safety engineering, balancing reliability, cost, and complexity.