Intrinsic Safety and Safety Barriers

Intrinsic safety (IS) is a method of providing safe operation of electronic process‐control instrumentation in hazardous areas. IS systems keep the available electrical energy in the system low enough that ignition of the hazardous atmosphere cannot occur. No single field device or wiring is intrinsically safe by itself (except for battery‐operated, self‐contained devices), but is intrinsically safe only when employed in a properly designed IS system. The concept of intrinsic safety recognizes that an energy discharge limit exists below which ignition cannot be brought about. The concept also recognizes the possibility of failure within the electrical equipment and requires that safety not be impaired by the occurrence of faults within the equipment or protective mechanism. The concept of intrinsic safety is shown below:

Concept of Intrinsic Safety

As shown above, most applications require a signal to be sent out of or into the hazardous area. The equipment

Read more »