What is intrinsic safety?
A system consisting of equipment and interconnecting wiring in which any spark or thermal effect is unable to cause fire in any part of the system intended for use in hazardous areas.
Advantages of Intrinsic safety:
The main advantage of intrinsic safety is that it provides
- The related guidelines and code of practice provide detailed instructions on the layout and use of inherently secure equipment at a degree not reached through any of the other safety methods.
- Appropriate inherently protected apps can be used in all. For general, it is the only solution with a sufficient security record for Zone 0 phones.
- A group IIC gas classification is typically allocated to intrinsically safe apparatus and systems that ensures that the equipment is compatible with all gas / air systems Sometimes, IIB systems are used as this enables a higher power level to be used.
- Usually, a T4 (135 ° C) temperature level is reached which satisfies the requirement for all industrial gasses except for carbon disulfide (CS), which is luckily uncommon.
- Sometimes, tools and the process in which they are used can be rendered ‘ ia IIC T4 ‘ at an acceptable level. It eliminates questions about area classification, gas grouping and temperature classification in almost all situations and becomes the standard safe solution.
- The idea of ‘ simple devices ‘ enables most simple pieces of equipment, such as switches, thermocouples, RTDs and junction boxes, to be used in inherently secure systems without the need for certifications.
- The intrinsic security technique is the only technique that allows for live maintenance in the dangerous area without needing to receive a certificate of ‘ carbon clearance.
- The requirements for installation and maintenance of inherently secure devices are well defined and clear regardless of the level of this reduces the amount of training required and decreases the likelihood of dangerous errors.
- Intrinsic protection allows traditional instrumentation cables to be used, while reducing cable length and inductance is often viewed as an issue, but in reality it is only a problem for cables longer than 400 metres, in systems installed in zones 0 and 1.
Why use intrinsic safety?
The main reason for using intrinsic security is that it is essentially a technique of low power. The risk of ignition is therefore minimized and adequate safety can be achieved with a degree of confidence that is not always achieved through other techniques.
A major factor for intrinsic security is that the system design controls the power level under fault conditions and does not depend on the less well-specified limitation of fault energy.
It also has the advantage that inherent security minimizes the risk of ignition from submerged or impaired wiring. It is beneficial to be able to do’ live maintenance’ on an instrument unit, and without the need for special’ dust free’ certificates, the use of the intrinsically safe technique enables this.
live maintenance is
