HORNBILL SYSTEMS

INTRODUCTION:

Intrinsic safety (IS) is a low-energy signaling technique that prevents explosions from occurring by ensuring that
the energy transferred to a hazardous area is well below the energy required to initiate an explosion.

The energy levels made available for signaling are small but useable and more than adequate for the majority of
instrumentation systems.

The two mechanisms being considered that could initiate an

explosion are:

• A spark
• A hot surface
• Providing electronic equipment for use in hazardous locations requires
conformance to the requirements of Intrinsic Safety to prevent accidental
ignition or detonation of the combustible gases or dust present in the
hazardous location.

• Intrinsic Safety requirements are divided by classification, division and

group.
 Intrinsic safety implies:

• limiting peak current and voltage at open circuit conditions,

• limiting thermal and electrical energy storage.

WHY INTRINSIC SAFETY?

• Properly designed and installed, intrinsically safe systems are safer than similar systems
that utilize explosion-proof enclosures for protection.

• Intrinsically safe design implies that the explosion will be prevented and, therefore,
should be safer even without expensive explosion-proof enclosures.
• By limiting energy to the hazardous area, there will be no spark, or it will
be too weak to propagate an explosion.

• Most guidelines require that two simultaneous failures, such as a short and
component failure can occur within the same loop before safety is
compromised.

• With explosion-proof enclosures, the single act of leaving the cover off a
switch could result in an unsafe condition. The consequences of human
error are thus diminished with intrinsically safe design.
 TYPES OF PROTECTION FOR SAFE CONTROL IN
HAZARDOUS AREAS:

• Intrinsic Safety (EEx ia & ib)

• Increased Safety (EEx e)

• Explosion-Proof Enclosures (EEx d)

• Purging or Pressurization (EEx P)

• Powder Filling (EEx q)

• Encapsulation (EEx m)

• Oil Immersion (EEx o )

• Fiber Optics Type n (Eex n)

 The classification of the hazardous areas describes :

 Class I indicating combustible gases or vapors,

 Class II describes combustible dust suspended in air, and

 Class III relates to ignitable fiber concentrations.

• These hazardous locations are grouped alphabetically in decreasing severity

according to the combustible airborne materials.
• For example,
• Group A describes an Acetylene rich atmosphere;
• Group D is propane mixed with air, while Group G is a grain dust suspension.
 DIVISIONS

• The Division designation refers to the probability of the electrical

equipment being exposed to the combustible.

 Division I indicates the electronic equipment will routinely be exposed to

the combustible in operations such as refueling, repair, venting, etc.

 Division II designates that the electronic equipment is exposed to the

combustible in abnormal circumstances.
 GROUPS

• Group A – Atmospheres containing acetylene.

• Group B – Atmospheres containing hydrogen, or gasses or vapors of equivalent

hazard, such as manufactured gas.

• Group C – Atmospheres containing ethyl-ether vapors, ethylene, or

cyclopropane.

• Group D – Atmospheres containing gasoline, hexane, naphtha, benzine, butane,

propane, alcohol, acetone, benzol, lacquer solvent vapors, or natural gas.

• Group E – Atmospheres containing metal dust, including aluminum,

magnesium, and their commercial alloys, and other metals of similarly hazardous
characteristics.

• Group F – Atmospheres containing carbon black, coal, or coke dust. Group G –

Atmospheres containing flour, starch, or grain dusts.
• Typical Intrinsically Safe Circuits:
Installation & Inspection of Intrinsic Safety
apparatus
 OVERVIEW:

• Devices such as transmitters, power supplies, batteries, capacitors, and

inductors can create or store energy that is greater than the allowable
intrinsic safety limits set forth by the governing body.

• The danger is generally not in their energy storage capacity but in the
intentional or accidental release of the stored energy due to short circuits or
open circuits. These electrical shorts and opens can be during normal
circuit operation and faulted circuit conditions.

• To use these energy storage devices in a hazardous location the voltage,

current, and device temperature must be limited to nonincendive values.
These nonincendive values have been proven safe by controlled
experimentation.

• Differing ignition values exist for each class, division, and group of
combustibles in a hazardous location.
• For approval of electronic equipment in Class I, Division I hazardous
locations the testing also requires the equipment to be safe if two
simultaneous faults are introduced.

• These faults can be shorted components or open circuit protection devices.

Component spacing is also addressed with component or circuit traces
spaced closer than 1.5 mm.

• These close traces are considered a ‘free fault’ and are not counted as one
of the two induced faults. The energy discharge of the circuit must still be
within the voltage, current, and temperature limit set forth by the
governing body specification.
 The advantages of intrinsic safety:

a) The IS technique is accepted throughout the world. There is an increasing

acceptance of international certificates issued under the IEC Ex scheme
but this has some way to go. Intrinsic safety is an acceptable technique in
all local legislation such as the ATEX Directives and OSHA.

b) The same IS equipment usually satisfies the requirements for both dust
and gas hazards.

c) Appropriate intrinsically safe apparatus can be used in all zones. In

particular, it is the only solution that has a satisfactory history of safety
for Zone 0 instrumentation.
d) Intrinsically safe apparatus and systems are usually allocated a group IIC gas
classification which ensures that the equipment is compatible with all gas/air
mixtures.

e) e) A temperature classification of T4 (135°C) is normally achieved, which

satisfies the requirement for all industrial gases except carbon disulfide (CS2)
which, fortunately, is rarely used.

f) Frequently, apparatus, and the system in which it is used, can be made ‘ia IIC
T4’ at an acceptable cost. This removes concerns about area classification, gas
grouping and temperature classification in almost all circumstances and
becomes the universal safe solution.
g) The ‘simple apparatus’ concept allows many simple pieces of apparatus,
such as switches, thermocouples, RTD’s and junction boxes to be used in
intrinsically safe systems without the need for certification. This gives a
significant amount of flexibility in the choice of these ancillaries.

h) h) The intrinsic safety technique is the only technique that permits live
maintenance within the hazardous area without the need to obtain ‘gas
clearance’ certificates. This is particularly important for instrumentation,
since fault-finding on reenergized equipment is difficult.
i) The installation and maintenance requirements for intrinsically safe
apparatus are well documented, and consistent regardless of level of
protection. This reduces the amount of training required and decreases
the possibility of dangerous mistakes.

j) Intrinsic safety permits the use of conventional instrumentation cables, thus

reducing costs. Cable capacitance and inductance is often perceived as a
problem but, in fact, it is only a problem on cables longer than 400
metres, in systems installed in Zones 0 and 1, where IIC gases
(hydrogen) are the source of risk. This is comparatively rare and, in most
circumstances, cable parameters are not a problem.
HAZARDOUS GROUP CLASSIFICATION