When using a scale in explosive agricultural or industrial conditions, there is often concern over the electrical equipment having the potential to spark, which can potentially cause an explosion.
Arlyn Scales has developed a line of Explosion Proof Scales that meet the tight standards set forth by the National Electric Code (NEC). This should allow for you to select a scale that will not cause explosions if selected correctly.
NEC HAZARDOUS LOCATION CLASSES
The NEC has three classes of Hazardous Locations, which represents the highest level of the entire classification scheme.
1. Class I Hazardous Location
To be classified as Class I, a location must have sufficient amounts of explosive gases or vapors that could cause an explosion if an electric spark were present. Class I locations typically include areas that involve the handling or storage of liquefied petroleum or facilities that handle any type of natural gas.
2. Class II Hazardous Location
Locations with combustible dust in the air are Class II Hazardous Locations. Many facilities fall under this classification such as those that manufacture or store aluminum or magnesium powders, sugar plants, feed mills and flourmills, grain elevators, and many others. All of these facilities have a certain amount of combustible dust that at some point could combust.
3. Class III Hazardous Location
Areas featuring dust that is too heavy to be airborne, but could still cause an explosion are classified as Class III Hazardous Locations. In these areas an electric spark could ignite the dust or a fire could break out from the dust particles becoming overheated by nearby electronics. Seed mills, wood mills and cotton gins all fall under this classification.
NEC DIVISIONS OF HAZARDOUS LOCATIONS
The NEC categorizes Hazardous Locations into two divisions, which include:
1. Division I Hazardous Location: areas where ignitable amounts of flammable gases are likely to exist in normal conditions.
2. Division II Hazardous Location: areas that only under abnormal situations have ignitable flammable gases or vapors are classified as Division II. In these areas, flammable materials are typically not present and if they do occur, they only will exist for a short amount of time.
NEC NATURE OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES
This NEC classification has to do with the type of substances in the environment. These classifications are broken down into two groups: Groups A-D for Class I locations, and Groups E-G for Class II locations.
Groups A-D Hazardous Substances
- Group A: Acetylene
- Group B: Hydrogen
- Group C: Ether
- Group D: A variety of common gases such as gasoline, butane, propane and natural gas.
Groups E-G Hazardous Substances
- Group E: Metal dusts that can be both explosive and conductive.
- Group F: Carbon is the primary element; it includes coal dust, charcoal dust, carbon black and coke dust.
- Group G: Grain dust is the primary material. It can come from substances such as cocoa, flour or starch. These dusts are explosive, but are not necessarily conductive.
ARLYN EXPLOSION-PROOF SCALES FOR AGRICULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS
Arlyn Scales offer a number of explosion-proof scales for a variety of different environments. Scales as a whole can typically become a source of ignition in a number of different ways:
1. Arcs or sparks produced by the regular use of equipment including switches, motors, and other equipment can cause material to ignite in a hazardous location.
2. High temperatures of certain equipment that can produce heat such as light fixtures or lamps can also cause hazardous materials to ignite.
3. Failing of equipment can ignite and potentially cause an explosion. Testing laboratories often conduct explosion tests to make sure that equipment used in hazardous areas meets certain NEC standards.
As a leader in the manufacturing of industrial scales, we’ve developed our scales and subassemblies in a way to handle even the most challenging hazardous environments.
Our ArlynGuard P platform scales are a good option for many hazardous agricultural environments. These scales offer capacities from 500 –1000 pounds and resolutions from 0.10-0.20 pounds.
ARLYN SCALES – EXPERIENCED SCALE DESIGNERS
The experts at Arlyn Scales have been designing and manufacturing agricultural scales for over 35 years. During the past three decades, we’ve grown our skills in high quality industrial scales. With both our offices and factory located in the heart of Long Island, New York, we’re able to provide our clients with the highest-level scales at a price that is extremely affordable.
FACTORY DIRECT APPROACH TO INDUSTRIAL SCALES
For many decades, most scale manufacturers have used a business model featuring distributors to sell scales to consumers. This created a scenario where scales were frequently marked up significantly to allow both the scale manufacturers and their distributors to earn a healthy profit.
While profit is key to the health of any business, at Arlyn Scales we learned early on that we could design and manufacture our scales in-house and then sell them directly to our customers. This has allowed us to eliminate distributors and have a much firmer grasp on all aspects of the scale design and manufacturing process.
Aside from lower prices, our factory direct approach also allows us to better connect with our clients. By working with our clients throughout the design and manufacturing process we’re able to address concerns and add features that other scale manufacturers simply overlook. At Arlyn Scales, we’re confident that our unique business model of working directly with each of our clients has helped us to remain a fixture in the industrial scale market for so long.
If you have any questions about our explosion-proof scales, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team of experts by phone at 800-645-4301 or through our online contact form.
