Restricted breathing enclosures save on PCs

Armagard's restricted breathing PC enclosures allow standard office-grade PCs to be used in zone 2 environments and are much more affordable than other hazardous area solutions.

One of the stipulations of ATEX Directive 94/9/EC is that companies must correctly identify their hazardous areas by 2003.

This means that within many currently defined zone 1 areas, many zone 2 areas will be identified.

This has an important implication for computerisation.

Zone 2 areas do not necessarily require expensive intrinsically safe or air purged systems.

Armagard's restricted breathing PC enclosures allow standard office-grade PCs to be used in zone 2 environments and are much more affordable than other hazardous area solutions.

They accommodate a desktop PC and up to 21in monitor and include an integral membrane keyboard and pointing device.

These Type N devices are fully compliant with ATEX 94/9/EC and have been independently tested and approved.

Zone 2 environments are those in which a potentially explosive atmosphere occurs only infrequently and for very short periods.

All hazardous area products must conform to the EC ATEX directive (ATEX 94/9/EC) before 2003.

The ATEX Directive harmonises the disparate standards currently existing in EC member states and is recognised as an international procedure.

Armagard's restricted breathing enclosures are conformant with the directive in compliance with the standard for Type nR (Restricted Breathing) devices (EN 50021:1998).

This standard means that the enclosure, in normal operations, is not capable of igniting a surrounding explosive atmosphere, and a fault capable of causing ignition is not likely to occur.

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