Within the European Community, intrinsically safe pressure sensors may only be utilized in hazardous areas if they’re installed in conjunction with an Ex barrier. The combination of pressure sensor and Ex barrier must meet the ?Proof intrinsic safety? in accordance with the 94/9/EC ATEX directive. Not absolutely 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, however, the functional characteristics must match your application. So, even if the safety-related data match, the pair of Ex barrier and pressure sensor may not match since, for instance, both components work ?passively?.
( Harmful about them ?active?/?passive? are available 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 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 more questions, our sales department will gladly offer you a detailed application consultation.