MTL Instruments, a part of Cooper Crouse-Hinds, has announced a major enhancement to its range of Fieldbus Intrinsically Safe Concept (FISCO) wiring components for Foundation fieldbus networks with the introduction of redundancy. MTL is the first company to introduce redundancy for the FISCO concept, which will provide the highest level of reliability for critical hazardous area applications.
Specifically, redundancy of the fieldbus power supplies will eliminate the risk of network failure in the event of loss of a single supply unit. Such redundancy has increasingly been requested by end users and engineering companies for fieldbus installations in which failure could result in severe loss of production. The new enhancements will allow FISCO to be deployed across a wider range of fieldbus applications in process industries, and in particular those where the "live-maintenance" benefits of intrinsic safety are required
FISCO is defined by IEC standard 60079-27, which provides a framework for the design and implementation of intrinsically safe fieldbus networks in hazardous areas. It has found wide industry acceptance because of the benefits of intrinsic safety as the safest explosion protection technique, the clearly defined maintenance practice and the widespread recognition by national standards organizations.
