The July Technology Evening, kindly sponsored by Extech Safety Systems, was held as usual at the Durban Country Club. Gary Friend, an expert in his field, presented on the topic ‘Intrinsic Safety Applications’. The principles of IS are frequently misunderstood, or disregarded, by designers, users, and maintenance technicians, and extend far beyond the mere addition of a barrier device into a circuit. It is also regrettably common for hazardous areas to be incorrectly identified, leading to the use of unsuitable methods and/or devices to provide protection against a fire or explosion being caused. Gary’s presentation provided valuable insight into several aspects of important techniques for explosion prevention, particularly for instrumentation and controls. He looked at:
• How to fit surge protection (field device and control room) in IS loops by identifying what the standards say, and how to document the IS loop.
• How to run non-IS cables through IS trunking.
• The impact of gas group and zone on IS cable lengths.
• The impact and issues with using galvanic isolators in SIL loops.
• Mobile devices in hazardous areas.
Chairman Hennie Prinsloo (left) thanking Gary Friend for his presentation.
Gary has been intensively involved in the world of IS since completing his B.Sc Electrical Engineering at the University of Witwatersrand in 1990. Among other appointments, he worked for MTL in the UK as a design engineer on IS interfaces and ended up leading the Technical Support Group for all MTL products worldwide. In September 2006, Gary returned to South Africa and joined Extech Safety Systems.
Gary sits on the SAIMC Council (responsible for standards and legislation) and Johannesburg branch of the SAIMC committee, Ex steering committee and IS sub-committee of the SA Flameproof Association, and is chairman of the Fieldbus Foundation Southern African Marketing Committee. He also sits on SABS TC65 (IEC031 mirror) and TC165 (IEC TC065 mirror) committees, so is obviously well qualified to present on the July topic.
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