Sensoring in dangerous environments – what you need to know
Sensoring in dangerous environments – what you need to know
Smart sensors are a true global IoT success story – it’s why we cover a lot of innovations in sensoring technology on the Energizing IoT blog.
But sensoring in dangerous environments represents an additional challenge for developers as there are several additional operational and safety considerations at play.
Many workplaces and activities are defined as explosive or potentially explosive atmospheres. There are those that seem obvious, including petrol stations and chemical processing plants, but also others that are considered high risk such as surface coating industries, wood/grain storages, sugar refineries and sewage treatment plants.
We caught up with one of our clients, Adeunis, to find out how they adapted one of their existing products for specific deployment in ATEX (ATmosphere EXplosive) zones.
Adapting PULSE for new environments
An ATEX Zone is defined as one that has a greater risk of explosion due to a combination of dangerous substances with air in the form of gases, vapors, mist or dust.
For Adeunis, the challenge was to adapt their PULSE sensor (launched in 2016) for deployment in these more challenging environments.
PULSE sensors already gave customers insight into their water and electricity meters, but Adeunis quickly realized that their customers – the building managers, owners, facility managers and energy managers – also needed to monitor the consumption of their gas meters.
As gas is flammable, they could not simply connect the PULSE sensor to the meter, they needed an ATEX sensor. After about 18 months of development the PULSE ATEX, adapted to meet the relevant ATEX standards, was launched.
The core directive that needed to be met was the ATEX 114 “equipment” Directive 2014/34/EU, that relates to equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.
But in the design process a number of other requirements had to be taken into account in order to limit any risk of exposure, which would be very serious in an explosive atmosphere.
So not only does the PULSE ATEX connect the IoT-enabled sensors and provide insight into actual gas consumption – but it can detect possible overconsumption of energy or gas leaks and allow users to act quickly should a threshold be exceeded.
Developing the PULSE ATEX
The main elements Adeunis had to look at protecting when designing PULSE ATEX were energy storage and the product inputs and outputs.
First, the need to mitigate risks meant reducing the energy storage to the minimum amount possible – while still being sufficient to operate the sensor.
The energy may come from various elements that needed shielding - from the stack, capacitors or inductances – as these elements can store energy in chemical form, in the form of voltage or in the form of current. They all, though, needed to be protected to meet the relevant safety standards.
The second factor – the product’s inputs and outputs – also required careful design. The PULSE ATEX sensor is directly linked to the meter itself, which also contains an energy source that needs protecting in hazardous environments.
Central to this all-round protection and safety is selecting the right battery for the product and its ATEX requirements.
The Adeunis team worked with Saft engineers and selected the LS 17500CNA battery for their product – and chose a soldered battery to ensure that it could not be replaced by a non-compliant battery. This chosen battery was then tested and validated, along with the entire sensor, by a certified laboratory to ensure compliance with the ATEX recommendations.
The PULSE ATEX is one of Adeunis’ best-selling products. Since its creation, more than 10,000 products have been installed and regularly read pulse data on various equipment in France and throughout Europe, including projects such as monitoring for the Pas de Calais department and its 165 administrative buildings.
Which Saft cells are ATEX or IECEx compliant?
Choosing compliant batteries can be a real boost for developers – as they can decrease the time required for certification and getting the product to market.
Saft offers a number of solutions for use in explosive atmospheres; either as a partially tested component or certified equipment. Saft batteries’ long lifetime is also a key advantage to reduce the need for frequent replacement in remote or hard-to-reach locations.