To understand and analyze the differences between two different products and their advantages and disadvantages, it is extremely important to know what the respective products stand for and how they can do justice to the requirements they are used for in the first place.
Purged panels– Purged panels are a solution that is generally used for electronic/ electric devices in dangerous areas containing conductive dust, flammable gases, corrosive gases or a combination of these. In pressurized enclosures or purge panels, the idea is to maintain a positive pressure inside the equipment or the enclosure to completely ban or restrict the entry of any kind of gases from outside. This in turn results in complete protection of the internal devices from the hostile and damaging gases or vapors etc. present in the atmosphere. This equipment ensures the prevention of safety violation and with a drop in the rate of the enclosure pressure results in an alarm which further triggers corrective action and completely cuts down on the power supply inside the purge panel. Some of the salient features if the purge panels are
- No restriction on size of enclosure
- ATEX/ CCOE/ UL certified purging system
- X-Type/ Z-Type / Y-Type purging system
- Enclosure MOC-Ms powder coated /SS-304/ SS- 316
Conventional flameproof panels– These panels are mostly used in places where there are more chances of concentration of flammable gases, dust, vapors etc. All the electrical equipment that are to be used in such areas needs to be well equipped with these instruments to ensure that no explosions are initiated due to arcing contacts or high surface temperature of instruments. These panels are a must-have in all the major industry all over the world be it chemicals, petrochemicals, food, breweries, pharmaceuticals etc.
With a clear understanding of what these two things are and what is the purpose it will be easier to understand what makes one better than the other? Clearly both the instruments are used to prevent malfunction in electrical process equipment from an explosion or by fire initiated by the ignition of gases that are present in the atmosphere. Even though both attempt at certain protection and safety to declare which one is better can differ from person to person and usage to usage.
The flameproof panels are simple to design and are just perfect for areas where there is high power equipment’s whereas the purged panels can be sued only in areas where there is restricted use of power for example in sounders, beacons, smoke detectors etc. secondly the flameproof panels can be extremely heavy as well as expensive as compared to the purged panels which are relatively cheaper. another factor that should always be taken into consideration before opting for the flameproof panels are that they do not allow opening of closure while power is not permitted whereas in case of purged panels there is the option of live maintenance and there is absolutely no need for shutting down the plant.
