Within the European Community, intrinsically safe pressure sensors may only be utilized in hazardous areas if they’re installed together with an Ex barrier. The combination of pressure sensor and Ex barrier must meet up with the ?Proof of intrinsic safety? relative to the 94/9/EC ATEX directive. Not all combinations of sensor and barrier from different manufacturers fulfil this condition.
On the main one hand, it could be that the safety or Ex characteristic values usually do not match, alternatively, the functional characteristics must match your application. So, even if the safety-related data match, the pair of Ex barrier and pressure sensor might not match since, for instance, both components work ?passively?.
(Additional information about them ?active?/? Unheard Of ? can be found in your blog article ?Electrical circuitry for pressure sensors: when is really a sensor active, so when passive??)
Therefore, you should make sure that you only use barriers and sensors together whose safety-related data and function-related data match each other. We therefore directly recommend, in our intrinsically safe pressure sensors? data sheets, a potentially compatible intrinsically safe Ex barrier.
If you have any further questions, our sales department will gladly offer you a detailed application consultation.