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Phoenix Contact Inline Modular Intrinsically Safe I/O


Potentially explosive areas place special requirements on distributed I/O systems, and Phoenix Contact’s Inline modular product family is excited for the addition of EX-IS I/O for such applications.  EX-IS I/O can be installed directly in potentially explosive Zone 2 environments and wired to sensors and actuators in the highly explosive Zone 1 and 0 environments.

Traditionally, you run the I/O signals out of the hazardous locations and wire them directly to the PLC. This method has the potential to create long parallel wiring runs that could become bulky, expensive and time consuming to install.  Removing the I/O from the PLC and distributing it closer to sensors directly in the Zone 2 environment can save time and money by simply replacing those wires with a single Ethernet or serial communications cable.

The construction of in Inline modular intrinsically safe I/O station consists of the following three pieces:

  1. Bus Coupler – Handles the communications of I/O signals back to the PLC.  Interface modules are available from the Inline modular product family and support all major serial and Ethernet protocols.
  2. Power Module – Provides fully isolated power for the EX-IS I/O modules.  An IS station can only contain one PWR module, and this module can supply power for up to 10 modules, or 1A of total current draw.  If this limit is reached, a second I/O station will need to be created.
  3. IS I/O Modules – They provide the connection to the I/O signals in Zone 1 and 0.  This offering consists of three variations for digital, analog, and temperature signals.  Each module can be individually configured as inputs or outputs with additional configurations for signal type and filtering.  This type of flexibility allows you to quickly adapt via software to the changing needs of your applications.