Explosion Prevention
Explosion prevention describes all measures to reduce or even eliminate the explosion probability. Basically, various requirements are needed for an explosion to occur. Explosive gas or dust mixture - oxygen - source of ignition. To prevent an explosion from occurring, it is thus sufficient to remove one of the necessary requirements from the action circle. In order to find the right protection against such an event, the various applications/cases must now be carefully assessed. Thus, ignition can be life-threatening not only in the closed process but also in an open process.
For example, the decanting of drums with combustible media often requires the manual intervention of an operator, which, in turn, poses a constant risk for the personnel. As protection using explosion venting or explosion isolation components is not possible, this is a classic example of prevention.
In order to protect the personnel and the process, the potential electrostatic discharge is prevented with the help of a FARADO® grounding system. The system issues a release as soon as a proper ground connection has been detected.
Another way to protect processes is monitoring with the help of IR temperature sensors and pyrolysis gas detectors. Mechanical processing of bulk materials in closed processes (milling, pelletising, pressing, etc.) often creates temperatures that can lead to the ignition of bulk materials. As smouldering material also carries enough energy to ignite certain explosive atmospheres, tailored monitoring is required to prevent a critical incident.
The HOTSPOT IR sensors can thus be used in pellet coolers, for example, to check the surface temperature of the processed material and to enable timely intervention by the operator before a fire occurs.
Ignition can be produced not only by the contribution of energy but also by spontaneous combustion, depending on the materials. Glowing embers can therefore be formed in a wide variety of places, which, in turn, requires comprehensive monitoring.
The GSME pyrolysis gas detectors are placed not only in storage areas but also in extraction/filter systems in order to be able to centrally detect combustion gases that arise during the process.
