SAIMC


Durban branch

November 2010 SAIMC

The Durban technology evening was held on 6 October at the Westville Country Club. It was clear from the excellent attendance that the topic was one that attracted wide interest. Gary Friend, sales director of Extech gave a very interesting and excellently presented talk about protection methods for electrical circuits in hazardous sreas, with special focus on intrinsic safety which is the preferred protection technique for many instrumentation installations. He reviewed hazardous area zone classification before covering the origins and principles of IS and the implications for dusts. It was noted that whereas the discharge of electrical energy was the major concern in the case of gases, in the case of dust the surface temperature was generally of greater significance. The use and specific advantages of zener barriers and galvanic isolators in a variety of practical situations were examined and compared, and he summarised the principles of loop design to accommodate both safety and operational requirements before moving on to show how approvals are done and how maximum usable cable lengths are calculated. The presentation ended with a brief look at IS for fieldbus and for Ethernet.

Presenter, Gary Friend seen shaking hands with Vinesh Maharaj
Presenter, Gary Friend seen shaking hands with Vinesh Maharaj

Queries: Jane +27 (0)31 764 0593, [email protected]



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