Gas explosions are often catastrophic, causing irreversible damage and sadly, human fatalities. When an ignition source, such as electrical or thermal equipment, enters a space where there are flammable and potentially explosive substances, typically in a confined building or vessel, extreme heat increases pressure in the space and causes an explosion.
The same principle applies when there is a high concentration of dust in the air, resulting in the same devastating consequences. In such an environment, you’d likely notice very low visibility, much like being in a dense fog. These situations are alarmingly common. In fact, records show that almost every industry which stores, handles and processes materials and substances has fallen victim to dust explosions – a series of devastating incidents throughout history, even in recent years.
This includes coal mines. When the rock is crushed, it disperses dust into the surroundings. When transported, the rock often gets knocked and damaged, throwing more dust into the air. What’s more, coal mining releases methane gas, which collects in coal rock over millennia. Methane gas is highly flammable and equally prone to explosion.
How Can Cygnus 1 Ex Help?
There are many ignition sources that may be brought into these areas for various reasons. One of these reasons performs a rather crucial task – ultrasonic testing equipment designed to carry out essential maintenance checks on the machinery operating to these processes. Whilst maintenance is also vital to the safety of these areas and may even contribute to prevention of dust clouds by preventing leakage, the maintenance equipment itself needs to be safe to handle in these hazardous environments.
The Cygnus 1 Ex is certified safe to use in locations where there is a risk of fire or explosion due to the presence of ignitable or flammable substances in the air at concentrations high enough to produce an ignitable mixture. This includes gases, vapours, and dust.
This is because Cygnus 1 Ex is Intrinsically Safe. For any equipment like Cygnus 1 Ex, that contains electronic components including batteries, intrinsic safety technology limits the energy present in a system, meaning no arc or spark can be generated, and no component can heat up enough to ignite a hazardous atmosphere under any conditions. This applies under both normal use and with applied fault conditions, at low power levels, and low stored energy.
Cygnus 1 Ex has an Intrinsically Safe Design, featuring:
- Limited output energy to prevent ignition of explosive atmospheres
- Anti-static enclosure to prevent static electricity discharge
- Multiple redundant safety components
- In the event of damage or a fault, no high surface temperatures are generated that could ignite an explosive atmosphere.
‘Intrinsically Safe’ is an Ex-Protection Concept, used to determine which areas of a facility (‘zones’) the equipment is suitable for. The term ‘Ex’ is recognised globally when referring to explosive atmospheres and the schemes used to prevent explosions. In both IECEx, ATEX and North American systems, intrinsically safe equipment can be used in any Zone or Division with the correct equipment protection level.
Cygnus 1 Ex is certified to all hazardous gas Zones (0, 1, 2). For dust, it is certified to Zones 21 and 22. Zone 21 identifies areas where combustible dust is occasionally present. Zone 22 identifies areas where combustible dust is not usually present but could be for short periods.
More First Class Cygnus 1 Ex Features
The Cygnus 1 Ex ultrasonic thickness gauge offers an invaluable leap forward for safe structural inspection in hazardous areas. Reviewed as “versatile, multifunctional, robust and intuitive,” by our customers, this intrinsically-safe gauge provides first-class user control and flexibility, eliminating the need for plant shutdown or a Hot Work permit. Equipped with 3 measuring modes and a selection of probes, the gauge can measure a range of materials and metals with severe corrosion or protective coatings up to 20mm thick. This saves considerable time and money removing coatings!
The great news for advanced users is that the Manual Measurement Mode ensures measurement on trickier areas like heavy corrosion, is easier and more accurate thanks to more versatile settings. Like a flaw detector, you can manually adjust two gates, positioning them anywhere on the A-scan, alter gate height, start-point and width, and measure from a gate or between gates. Furthermore, Time-Controlled Gain (TCG) enables introduction of different gains to boost weaker echoes.
When storing and analysing data, you’ll enjoy equal flexibility. Comprehensive data logging offers linear, templates, and 2-D or 3-D grid formats, with 16 grid patterns and annotation capability. Radial Points enable further investigation on areas of interest or heavy corrosion, allowing you to add up to 12 additional measurements ‘around’ the principal measurement.
