Thursday, 02. October 2008 Hot swap of fieldbus barriers in explosive atmospheres

 

The R. STAHL miniCLIX Ex plug connector system now features new Y adapters that enable users to quickly and comfortably route two cables to one plug or socket with hot swap functionality in Zone 1 areas. The concept of fieldbus barriers, also known as the power trunk or high energy trunk concept, has proven to be the most powerful solution for fieldbus installations in explosive atmospheres. In this setup, a non-intrinsically safe trunk provides enough energy to power a maximum of 16 intrinsically safe / FISCO field devices per segment. Zone 1 fieldbus barriers like R. STAHL’s type 9411 field device couplers can connect up to eight I.S. field devices per barrier to the power trunk. However, since the trunk connection is not intrinsically safe, but Ex e (increased safety) or non-incendive protected, no hot swapping in Zone 1 is permitted if a barriers fails and must be replaced. Users may therefore have to shut down the whole segment, which may result in high standstill cost.

Type 8592 miniCLIX Y adapters are certified for hot swap of non-intrinsically safe signal lines like e.g. the trunk cable of a fieldbus barrier installation. Using miniCLIX connectors and Y adapters at the trunk connection of a fieldbus barrier, each barrier can be safely and easily be unplugged during operation in explosive atmospheres, without interrupting the whole segment. No special hot work permit is needed. Hence, this solution combines the effectiveness of the power trunk principle with the hot swap convenience of intrinsic safety. miniCLIX connectors also allows for converting Ex d field devices into “plug and play” versions, making all fieldbus devices hot swappable.

 

Contact:
R. STAHL

Kerstin Wolf
Am Bahnhof 30
74638 Waldenburg

Phone: +49 (0) 7942 / 943-4300
Fax: +49 (0) 7942 / 943-404300
Mail: presse@stahl.de
WWW: www.stahl.de

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