Intention of all Hazardous Location approvals is to minimize the risk of explosion or fire due to sparks or excessive heat.
Below are some industries which would require such approvals:
- Process Industry
- Oil and Gas Industry
- Gas Pumps, Gas Stations
- Food and Beverage
- Mining Industry
- Waste Water Treatment Plant
Strict requirement for: spacing, fuses, relays, connectors, surface temperatures. The normal operation mode and several failures modes have to be investigated. Unfortunately, “The world” does not agree on uniform requirements…thus several approvals are needed.
Class I Div 2
- Class I Div 2 is important for North America and Canada
- It was the first Hazardous Location approval PULS applied for
- Classification in “Classes” (Class I Div 2)
Applicable standards:
UL 1604: former standard for Class I Div 2 – become obsolete in 2012. ANSI/ISA -12.12.01: Actually used for Class I Div 2 conformance investigations
IECEx-Scheme
- IECEx is driven International
- Classification in “Zone” similar to ATEX
- Standards: IEC 60079-xx (harmonized standards)
- An IECEx-Scheme is something similar to a CB-Scheme.
- The IECEx-Scheme also follows the EU-directive 94/9/EU (ATEX)
- Beside the European countries, Australia, Canada, China, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and the USA belong to the 26 countries within the IECEx-Scheme
- Refer to below link on the IECEx certificate of Conformity for PULS’s CPS20.241; 24VDC 20A Power Supply certified for use in Class 1 Zone 2 Groups IIa, IIb and IIc (Ex nA nC IIC T3 Gc)
www.automation.com/pdf_articles/iecex.pdf
Key Points:
- From 2005, ATEX and IECEx is technically identical standards for Electrical Equipment (very few exceptions)
- Manufacturer’s Self Certification is allowed under ATEX but not under IECEx
- When using IEC standards a single set of Test and Assessments can be used for both IECEx and ATEX, in accordance with the respective rules
- An ATEX EC Type Examination can be based on an IECEx ExTR.
- QA audits are the same for both IECEx and ATEX.
But ATEX documentation alone is not sufficient for IECEx
ATEX
- ATEX is important for Europe (EU-directive 94/9/EG).
- Classification in “Zones” (PULS units are usually Zone 2)
- Applicable standards: EN 60079-0, EN 60079-15
- Refer to below link on the ATEX approval certificate for PULS’s CPS20.241; 24VDC 20A Power Supply certified for deployment use in hazardous locations Zone 2 Category 3G (II 3G Ex nA nC II T3 Gc)
www.automation.com/pdf_articles/ATEX.pdf
So as a Power Supply manufacturer which provides solution globally, it is our responsibility to provide the ease of mind for customer in their design and planning for equipment for Class 1 Div 2, ATEX and IECEx requirements. And… YES! Here in PULS we have our all new CPS20.241 and QS40.241, 24V/20A and 24V/40A Single Phase Input Power Supply that conform to Class 1 Div 2, ATEX and IECEx Hazardous Location approvals! So is it going to Class 1 Div 2, ATEX or IECEx for the next project?
Don’t worry as PULS’s CPS20.241 and QS40.241 are ready for all. Furthermore, they are ATEX/IECEx approved by design. What is “ATEX/IECEx-by-design”? Usually, in order to achieve ATEX/IECEx approval, the PCB of the power supplies must be heavily coated.
The PCB coating process is an unreliable and costly Typically a power supply with ATEX/IECEx approval is 50% to 100% more expensive than the non-ATEX/IECEX models. This is especially true for higher wattage power supplies like a 20A and 40A PSU. With ATEX/IECEx-by-Design, PULS is the first one in the industry to achieve ATEX/IECEx approval without the expensive and unreliable PCB coating process, but by smart internal design instead. As such, we call it “ATEX/IECEX-by-Design”. So PULS product with ATEX/IECEx-approval has the same costs as the non-ATEX/IECEx models.
Using PULS ATEX/IECEx approved power supplies, customers don’t have to pay the hefty sure-charge for ATEX/IECEX-approval when they use our QS40 & CPS20 product family.
Cool-Gaper and Compact Size
CPS20 and QS40 are currently the smallest 20A and 40A Din Rail power supply in the industry. These help customers to reduce “real estate” in a space limited cabinet. In a redundancy system application using either CPS20/QS40, Two power supplies can be put side by side each other with our MOSFET redundancy module in between without any spacer. Thanks to the high efficiency found our CPS20 & QS40 product as well as the extremely low power loss with our MOSFET Redundancy module (YR40 & YR80) series. With low power losses on the MOSFET redundancy module, it acts as a heat insulator and cools down the ambient temperature.
Refer to FIGURE 1 below. By the way, PULS YR40 & YR80 family are also ATEX/IECEx approved by-Design.
Light weight
DIN-Rail was not intended to carry heavy but rather light-weight components like Sensors, MCB, and Relays etc.. A 40A power supply from our competitor weighs almost 4KG versus PULS QS40 which just weigh 1.9KG. Imagine a 40A redundancy system using two pieces of 4KG PSU from our competitor versus a solution from PULS at just half the weight.
