Safety of Electronic Equipment In Potentially Explosive Sites Pulled Up To A New Level With Hazardous Area Barrier Network Fuse

Littelfuse Inc. recently introduced a 40mA PICO® 242 Series Hazardous Area Barrier Network Fuse. An advanced fuse, it provides backup for framing barrier circuits for internal safety products that can save from explosions and fire from generating extra heating or sparks that can ignite explosion or fire bringing down the risk of short/overcurrent circuit events.

Fig. 1: Image Showing PICO® 242 Hazardous Area Barrier Network Fuse

(Image Source: Littlefuse)

The PICO® 242 Series Fuse gets along with the requirements of internal safety standards such an EN/IEC/UL 60079-11. All of these are related to explosive atmosphere and hazardous location applications. Every single product designed with these fuses would adhere to related European Directives and several other global environmental requirements. The 40mA current rating, the PICO® 242 Series is the minimum nominal current related barrier fuse with such small sized package. It also supports compact internal safety product design without giving in protection performance.

Major applications of PICO® 242 Series Hazardous Area Barrier Network Fuse include gas meters, flow meters, process control equipment, process automation equipment, motor controllers, communication handset/two-way radio, processing electrical and electronic equipment.

The Global Product Manager of Electronics Business Unit at Littelfuse, Christopher Coolman, says, “The PICO® 242 Series’ 40mA nominal current rating offers a significant advantage over earlier 50mA barrier fuses. Designers of intrinsically safe products use the fuse current rating to set the power threshold to which all other components must adhere. It provides a 20 percent reduction in the power requirements of downstream components such as Zener diodes, which enables more compact design and could result in cost savings of these components.”

Key advantages offered by PICO® 242 Series Hazardous Area Barrier Network Fuses include:

● Keeps the downstream circuits from over current or short circuit faults. This keeps them from igniting the nearby explosive atmospheres.

This one also caters the requirements for intrinsic safety standards for hazardous area applications and has been acknowledged by UL 248-14.