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instrumentation such as pressure transmitters and flow transmitters in the field ( 4 to 20 mA) supplied
through either barriers or by galvanic isolation. Intrinsically safe. I would guess that as the energy is
limited by the barrier then one could just hook up a test meter and measure the milliamps at the
instrument end and apply the pressure to the capule, measure the current. Can this be done in a Div O
area as in theory there is not enough energy to cause a explosion. Or is this regarded as bad practise.
Pepper and Fuchs do write yes in one of their blogs buit as yet I have failed to find a definative answer
from our compex guys and tend to err on the side of caution and think no. difficult I know but I would
appreciate any definative answers.
always produce obvious malfunction. Periodic verification that these ground connections are sound is
essential. Inspection frequency must be tailored to the severity of the environment.
The most likely way for an intrinsically safe installation to be violated is by modification without reference
to the original design parameters. If a new device is needed to make the control scheme work better, it is
easy to wire it into the loop without checking to see whether the limiting inductance or capacitance are
exceeded or without determining that the new device is approved for use in the existing loop. Of
especially high risk are additions to panel wiring that violate separation between intrinsically safe and nonintrinsically safe circuits.
Reinspection of the installation can perhaps minimize this kind of negative improvement, but the best way
to avoid any of them is insistence that all modifications are checked against the original design
parameters and are recorded in the design documentation.
The authors of Practical Electrical Equipment and Installations in Hazardous Areas (Elsevier, 2005) give
testing some coverage - a 16 page chapter, Fault Finding and Testing, which includes a couple pages on
use of mulitmeters and uncertified test apparatus through a barrier, among other topics.