Within the European Community, intrinsically safe pressure sensors may only be used in hazardous areas if they’re installed in conjunction with an Ex barrier. The mix of pressure sensor and Ex barrier must meet up with the ?Proof of intrinsic safety? in accordance with the 94/9/EC ATEX directive. Not absolutely all combinations of sensor and barrier from different manufacturers fulfil this problem.
On the one hand, it may be that the safety or Ex characteristic values do not match, alternatively, the functional characteristics must match the application. So, even though the safety-related data match, the couple of Ex barrier and pressure sensor might not match since, for instance, both components work ?passively?.
(Additional information about them ?active?/? Billion ? are available in the blog article ?Electrical circuitry for pressure sensors: when is a sensor active, so when passive??)
Therefore, factors to consider that you merely use barriers and sensors together whose safety-related data and function-related data match one another. We therefore directly recommend, in our intrinsically safe pressure sensors? data sheets, a potentially compatible intrinsically safe Ex barrier.
If you have any more questions, our sales department will gladly offer you a detailed application consultation.