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In the constantly evolving world of technology, safety remains a top concern among engineers during development. Whether it&#;s a sensor in your car, your son&#;s handheld video game, or a surgically implanted medical device in your elderly neighbor, we need assurance that our products are intrinsically safe (IS) during use.
This is especially true when it comes to electronics used in already dangerous conditions. Atmospheres in mines, chemical plants, processing mills, tankers, and oil refineries can contain extremely hazardous areas that rely on intrinsically safe equipment to keep workers from harm&#;s way.
Basically, intrinsically safe electronics allow for safe operation in hazardous areas by limiting the electrical or thermal energy available for ignition. Common industrial equipment like motor brushes and switches are at risk of:
Internal sparks
Overheating
Short-circuiting
By simplifying the circuitry, controlling internal temperatures, and adjusting components to reduce dust-caused shorts, this equipment protects workers from a variety of threats.
Fundamentally, intrinsic safety is a low-energy technique where the current, voltage, and power are reduced to a level too low to cause ignition. Generally, the maximum level of power available is less than 1.3W.
Additionally, the maximum temperature must be controlled, and among the six classes used to define temperature levels, electronics meeting the T4 designation are considered IS. This is because, at this level, temperatures won&#;t exceed 135 degrees C (275 degrees F).
Many electronics can be found in intrinsically safe forms. These include:
Radios
Mobile phones
Cameras
Gas detectors
Even flashlights!
Why is intrinsically safe equipment important in these products? Simply put, lives depend on it.
Communications inside a mine are integral to the safety of the workers, and failure of those lines could result in an accident. Electronics used in environments producing flammable gases like hydrogen and propane cannot have a risk of sparking or overheating, or an explosion is imminent.
Our Obsolescence guide can help you find the right engineering solution:
Intrinsically Safe Vs. Explosion-Proof
Explosion-proof products are capable of containing an explosion inside an enclosure. It will keep flames or hot gases from escaping the housing. The term "explosion-proof" does not indicate the product is capable of withstanding a strong external force.
Intrinsically safe electronics receive their classification because they are low-power enough that they won't cause an explosion in the first place.
Besides the inherent safety benefits of meeting intrinsically safe requirements for electronics, there are other upsides to consider when deciding what you need out of your product:
Avoiding the cost, bulk, and tedious installation of explosion-proof enclosures.
Maintenance and diagnostic work can be performed without shutting down production and ventilating the area.
Potentially lower insurance premiums due to reduced risk.
While individual parts can be IS-certified, the entire system must be designed to be intrinsically safe. It requires full documentation of all components and wiring used in the system.
Immediately following installation, an inspection will take place, followed by periodic inspections throughout the life of the equipment. This is to identify any damage, deterioration, or unapproved replacement of IS components.
While IS equipment can in some cases serve as a replacement for explosion-proof equipment, that is not always the case. This is due to the reliance on low power and temperatures.
For more on keeping electronics running properly and safely for your target market, get our Guide for Testing Capabilities below:
(Editor's Note: This article was originally published in March and was updated in July to reflect current information.)
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By Paul Bearpark, Head of Electronics and Software at 42T
They can now all be remotely monitored by harvesting power from their existing electrical supply. Also, you can measure energy efficiency to find out if energy saving could be employed or equipment replaced.
Making the world smarter and more connected is a valuable ambition. It allows companies to optimise their operational efficiency and consumers to maximise convenience. The overall benefit is optimal asset monitoring and better control over assets leading to enhanced services, higher efficiency and less waste.
Making electrical devices smarter will often be straightforward because the existing electrical supply can be utilised to provide a permanent supply to the monitoring, control and communications electronics. While the benefits are clear and the vision tangible, there are practical difficulties to making it a reality.
One of these challenges is often to provide a source of power. Even at the low levels required for sensing and occasional low-power communications. In many circumstances, access to the mains or primary power supply might not be available or may be impractical, even for an electrical system. This is particularly the case when considering retrofit. Batteries could be employed but they have many major disadvantages &#; limited life, transportation difficulties (especially Lithium), disposal and safety issues.
However, at 42T we&#;ve found that remote monitoring and/or control capability is usually still possible where direct access to the mains or primary power is not available, and avoiding using a battery.
Let&#;s take a look at three examples.
Most electricity substations have a very crude form of monitoring. The only device usually available is a &#;maximum demand indicator.&#; This records the peak current flow in each phase since it was last reset. It&#;s an electromechanical device requiring an on-site visit to read and reset.
With the transition to electric vehicles, electric heating and renewable installations, electricity networks are becoming increasingly complex. Without understanding network demand patterns, Distribution Network Operators may be forced to make unnecessary upgrades or make them too late.
Providing power to a retrofitted monitoring system requires strict safety precautions, often involving disrupting the supply to consumers. With careful design of the electronics such that the power consumption is low, a retrofittable monitoring and communications system can be developed that harvests power from the electrical field generated by the current flowing in the supply.
At 42T, we have developed a concept for a low-cost, non-contact system which is installed on each phase of the supplies without needing to disrupt them. It provides continuous measurement of voltage and current which can be communicated over a low power radio network such as NB-IoT.
It is continually powered whilst there is current flow and easily fitted without interrupting the supply. If monitoring is required during periods when there is little or no current flow, charge stored in a supercapacitor can provide a bridge.
This technique could be applied to any single or multi-phase electricity supply where there is sufficient electric field to power the electronics and the phases are individually accessible.
Figure 1 below provides a schematic of the system employed on each phase of the electricity supply. The device is attached to the cable or &#;bus bar&#; providing the supply.
The attached device contains all the energy harvesting, sensing and communications electronics required to measure the electricity supply and occasionally communicate some data. In a multiphase system, the devices can be connected together to generate &#;pseudo-neutral&#;, making it possible to measure voltage in addition to current.
Electromechanical switches for powered devices are often the primary mechanism for switching them on and off. However, there are many occasions when it would be beneficial to switch them on or off remotely. This could be to replace the electromechanical switch where remote control operation is needed or in addition to the electromechanical switch itself.
Often there is a simple way to achieve this capability by leaking a small amount of current through the circuit to power the electronics when the main device is off. The power needed is a few tens of milliwatts or less. And leaking such a small amount of current through a device will not turn it on or result in any undesirable behaviour. It&#;s only when the device is switched on fully, that it operates as normal.
At 42T we have investigated this current leakage-scavenging method of powering circuits for remote control for several applications. It&#;s not suitable in every instance but often worthy of investigation because it can result in a simple, often retrofittable, device upgrade. All this without requiring a separate supply to the mains or a battery.
Remote control is one application, but the technique of current leakage-scavenging could be employed to monitor a piece of electrical equipment by replacing the electromechanical switch with a smart electromechanical switch. For instance, the smart switch could report how often and how long the device is used for, or its energy usage. With energy costs rising, it can be useful to have a measure of energy usage of a piece of electrical equipment to determine whether there are energy saving measures that could be employed or the equipment replaced by something more efficient.
The third example of a novel method for making devices smarter is to do so even when they are switched off. Power tools could benefit from this; it would often be useful to know where a tool is or whether it has been dropped or mishandled during transport. One solution would be to provide a battery to power the electronics that monitors its state and communicates that state occasionally even when it&#;s off. However, as previously mentioned there are lot of downsides to adding a battery to a product.
An alternative is to use a super-capacitor. Super-capacitors do discharge over time but it is possible to design circuits that provide back-up power for a few hundred hours. The energy density is lower than a battery so the art is in designing the system to utilise the available charge carefully. For instance, the communications technology used needs to be suitable for a low energy supply. BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) or NB-IoT could both be considered for this type of application. BLE requires that it is in range of a gateway device such as a mobile whereas NB-IoT is a cellular technology for very low power devices.
Enabling energy harvesting in the ways described requires two aspects to be considered and balanced. The power consumption of the system and the availability of harvestable power. Often, the available harvestable power is small if it relies on scavenging from the electromagnetic field, leaking current through the primary device or relying on the charge stored in a supercapacitor. The available energy then determines the requirement for very low-power system design.
Unleashing the power of connected everything should not be limited by the local availability of abundant, easily accessible energy. Often some lateral thinking about the energy sources that could be tapped into and the technology to do that, combined with up-front design and engineering of the bespoke sensing and communications system can enable the value of the measurement and control to be realised.
Free energy thereby becomes the key to power freedom.
If you would like to find out more please contact Paul:
| +44 (0) | www.linkedin.com/in/paul-bearpark
Paul Bearpark is an experienced engineer, engineering manager, product manager and energy consultant. He has spent over 25 years working in the field of electronics in both product development companies and technology consultancies.
During his career he has led the development of products through their entire life-cycle from concept to volume manufacture with ongoing support and upgrade.
He specialises in radio communications, sensor systems and systems engineering. He has worked in the defence and security, telecommunications, and test and measurement industries.
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