Founded in 1992, Extronics is a leading global designer and manufacturer of intrinsically safe and explosion-proof equipment. From our UK headquarters, we serve customers throughout the world working in potentially explosive environments, especially those in the chemical, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and oil and gas industries.
Extronics product expertise falls into four clearly defined areas: wireless networks, hazardous area engineering, vision technologies and personnel and asset tracking.
Wireless networks
For the last few years, Extronics has led the way in helping companies unlock their data from hazardous areas via standards-based wireless technology. Through innovative product development, technical design capability and technical partnerships with companies such as Cisco® and Aruba®, Extronics has become recognised as a leader in this particular field. Applications once deemed impractical and costly are now a commercial reality.
iSOLATE500 is the world’s first apparatus-certified, intrinsically safe radio frequency galvanic isolator. Resulting from four years of research and development by Extronics, the iSOLATE500 is a major breakthrough in hazardous area wireless networking. Featuring a unique galvanic isolation design, the unit blocks all possible faults, including hazardous transients, and makes any suitable RF output intrinsically safe.
Fully certified for use by ATEX and IECEx, the iSOLATE500 enables standard wireless equipment to be deployed in the vast majority of hazardous areas without the need for costly assessment by notified bodies. Live connect / disconnect of standard antennas is now allowed and the whole process of deploying wireless networks in hazardous areas is made a far simpler and more cost-effective process.
The new iWAP107 access point enclosure system allows the latest MIMO access points from market leaders such as Cisco and Aruba to be deployed in hazardous areas, significantly improving wireless performance and reliability.
The iWAP107 features the revolutionary iSOLATE500 RF galvanic isolators, making all the antenna ports intrinsically safe. This enables any standard antenna to be used with the system and allows conventional wiring of RF connections. Designed for use in ATEX and IECEx Zone 1 hazardous areas, the iWAP107 is a perfect system to allow data to be unlocked from difficult process areas such as oil rigs and heavy petro-chemical sites. The iWAP107 has already been commissioned for use in deep water production platforms where its gigabit ethernet capability is vital in providing the necessary bandwidth.
Hazardous area engineering
The Extronics engineering team possesses the expertise and experience necessary to create bespoke engineered solutions based upon the various concepts of protection in hazardous environments. This engineering expertise has enabled Extronics to create a range of innovative Ex d solutions, which are available as standard items – reducing both lead time and production costs.
Extronics iUPS power supply systems systems are ATEX and IECEx-approved and have been deployed in a wide variety of critical hazardous area environments. In these extreme environments, power supplies can be subject to potentially damaging fluctuations and outages. The systems are also able to operate in a wide variety of temperatures, with a recent requirement being for 55°C ambient.
The iUPS101 range is designed for use in ATEX Zone 1 areas and can be wall or floor mounted. Able to backup 230VAC power for up to 35 minutes, at 3KVA full load, the unit has a modular design which allows an additional battery pack to be integrated to double the backup time to a maximum of 70 minutes with a 3KVA load. This modular design also enables the creation of a system which can deliver a maximum load of 9KVA for 60 minutes at 20°C ambient temperature.
Vision technologies for hazardous areas
Extronics is a world leader in vision technologies for hazardous areas. This expertise includes the design and production of the world’s first intrinsically-safe digital camera, the iCAM50x range, as well as innovative monitoring solutions, video monitors and HMIs.
The latest addition to the award-winning iCAM50x range, the intrinsically safe camera iCAM502 is a Zone 0 ATEX and IECEx-rated and Class 1 Div 1 rated hazardous area camera. Lightweight and highly portable, the auto-focus lens allows crystal-clear images to be taken from as close as 5cm. This makes the iCAM502 ideal for taking pictures of rating plates, close-ups of wiring cabinets and more.
Personnel and asset tracking
Personnel and asset tracking solutions are of particular importance to companies with designated hazardous areas. Extronics wireless expertise provides the framework for the delivery of active and passive RFID-based tracking solutions designed to improve worker safety, production efficiency and asset management.
iMUSTER is an automatic mustering and personnel location system which is based on standard 802.11 WiFi. The system is fully ATEX, IECEx and FM-certified and ensures the safe evacuation of personnel on hazardous facilities, such as offshore production platforms, drilling rigs, FSO and FPSOs. More cost-effective than systems based on proprietary wireless networks, iMUSTER is highly scalable from with a small system with less than a hundred tags to one tracking and monitoring tens of thousands.