Within the European Community, intrinsically safe pressure sensors may only be utilized in hazardous areas if they are installed together with an Ex barrier. The combination of pressure sensor and Ex barrier must meet the ? Increase 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 one hand, it could be that the safety or Ex characteristic values usually do not match, alternatively, the functional characteristics must also match your application. So, even if the safety-related data match, the pair of Ex barrier and pressure sensor might not match since, for example, both components work ?passively?.
(Additional information on the subject ?active?/?passive? can be found in the blog article ?Electrical circuitry for pressure sensors: when is 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 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 further questions, our sales department will gladly will give you detailed application consultation.