Ignitec® Intrinsically Safe Design

Intrinsically safe design refers to creating products that can safely operate in hazardous environments without causing ignition. It focuses on reducing the energy available to the system to ensure explosions can’t occur.

It’s crucial for ensuring the safety of products used in potentially explosive atmospheres. Ensuring a product’s intrinsic safety can prevent accidents, safeguarding both the users and the environment.

Products achieve this by limiting the energy available within the system, ensuring it’s too low to ignite explosive gases or dust. This is done through design considerations and protective measures.

It should be considered for any product intended to be used in an environment with a potential risk of gas, vapour, or dust explosions. Such environments can be found in industries like health tech, clean technology, and IoT.

There are various international and national bodies that set standards and regulations for intrinsically safe designs. In the UK, one of the primary bodies is the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Industries operating in environments with a potential risk of explosions, such as the petrochemical, mining, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture sectors, heavily rely on intrinsically safe designs. These designs ensure that devices and systems within these sectors don’t ignite flammable gases, vapours, or dusts, thus prioritising safety and reducing the risk of catastrophic events.

Ensuring intrinsic safety means products can be reliably used in hazardous environments without causing ignition. This reliability can save businesses from potential liabilities and protect users from harm.

While both ensure safety in explosive environments, intrinsically safe design prevents explosions by limiting energy, while explosion-proof design contains and isolates any potential explosions within a robust enclosure.

Not all environments pose a risk of explosion. Industries without such risks may not require the specific considerations of intrinsically safe design.

Specialised regulatory bodies and independent testing organisations can evaluate products for intrinsic safety. In the UK, this would typically be under guidelines set by the HSE.

Important components include barriers to limit voltage and current, protective circuitry, and specialised materials that prevent spark or heat generation.

The principles have evolved over many years as industries recognised the need for safety in explosive environments. The formalisation of these principles into standards and guidelines has been a more recent development in the broader context of industrial safety.

Companies implement regular maintenance checks, periodic testing, and continuous training to ensure that the designed safety measures remain effective throughout the product’s lifecycle.

Challenges include staying updated with changing regulations, ensuring all components meet safety standards, and balancing functional requirements with safety considerations.

Hazard analysis, risk assessment, environment testing, and compliance testing are vital to validate a product’s intrinsic safety.

Devices that are certified as intrinsically safe usually bear specific markings or labels, indicating their compliance with the relevant standards and their suitability for specified hazardous environments.

Failure to adhere can lead to catastrophic accidents, financial liabilities, and legal consequences. Furthermore, it can jeopardise the safety of users and the environment.

Different regions and industries have unique environmental and operational requirements. Therefore, standards are developed to address these specific needs, ensuring products are safe for their intended use.

While design and manufacturing companies play a primary role, ensuring intrinsic safety is a collective responsibility, involving regulatory bodies, testing organisations, and end-users.

Intrinsically safe design prioritises limiting electrical and thermal energy to ensure that devices cannot ignite a flammable atmosphere. This often involves the use of energy-limiting components, barriers, and safe separation distances

Components for intrinsically safe design are chosen based on their ability to operate safely within defined energy parameters. They should not produce sparks or get hot enough to cause ignition, and their specifications must match the defined safety parameters for the intended environment.

Intrinsically safe design requirements are often guided by international standards such as IEC 60079 and regional standards like ATEX in Europe. These standards provide detailed guidelines on designing equipment for explosive atmospheres.

Energy-limiting devices are essential because they restrict the electrical energy in a circuit, ensuring it remains below the level that can ignite a particular gas or dust. This ensures that even in the event of a fault condition, the environment remains safe.

In intrinsically safe design, consideration for potential fault conditions is paramount. The design must ensure that even in the event of faults like short circuits or component failures, the electrical and thermal energy remains below ignition-capable levels for the specific hazardous environment.