Due to the dangers prevalent in petrochemical, mining and marine applications there is a need for equipment that is non-volatile and would by extension, not be the cause of explosions and fires. This standard in the marine environment is known and marine approval is underwritten by various insurers and organisations worldwide to ensure a universally compliant safety standard for shipping.
On the other hand, Ex-rated equipment refers to equipment that is classified as safe to use in areas where fire hazards are a real threat. Generally, equipment that is not marine and Ex rated could emit small sparks or work at temperatures that have the potential to ignite gasses resulting in disaster.
LSIS has for years been actively interested in getting Ex rating and marine approval and have a PLC range, the XGI, the LSLV-iS7 frequency inverter and iXP HMI which are marine approved.
The iXP50 and iXP70 HMIs have now been Ex rated. The marine approvals come from DNV-GL, Lloyds Register, ClassNK, KR, RINA, ChinaCS, Bureau Veritas and ABS and the Ex ratings for the iXP from clmEx and IECEx.
Some of the key features of the iXP range include an ARM Cortex-A8 Core (32-bit RISC), 1 GHz processor, 256-512 MB operating RAM and 128 MB programming space. The backlight is LED with more than 60 000 hours of operation time and 16 to 24 bit colour capability. The HMIs have built-in proximity sensors which turn on the screen backlight when approached by the operator and then off once he has moved away. This HMI range has RS-232, RS-485 and Ethernet installed as standard, and supports over 100 variations of communication protocols for the following OEM products: LSIS, LS Mecapion, BACnet, BYD Auto, CAN in Automation, Control Techniques, Daewon GSI, Dasarobot, Delta Electronics, Digital Electoronics (Pro-face), Fuji Electric Systems, GE Intelligent, Hanyoung NUX, Higen Motors, Hitachi, Hyundai Elevator, KDT Systems, Keyence, Koyo Electronic, KTurbo, Lenze Automation, Panasonic Electric, Parker, Profibus International, Beckhoff, TSSI, Mitsubishi Electric, Omron, Rockwell Automation, RS Automation, Schneider Electric, SEW Eurodrive, Siemens AG, Sprint Electric, Yaskawa Electric, Yokogawa Electric and FATEC Automation Corporation.
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