Reliable Wireless Communications for Chemical Plants

Chemical plants and petrochemical facilities present a challenge for communications.

Electrically Classified Areas

First off, the main working area of the plants have strict requirements for electrically classified areas. Typically, mobile or cellular phones are not permitted for several reasons.

Standard personal mobile phones are not rated electrical devices and therefore they can present an ignition risk, even if it is low. Even if employees do bring them to work, they are not usually permitted in classified areas.

Mobile devices are safe to use in a control room because the control room is unclassified, it would be impossible to have all intrinsically safe or explosion proof electronics in the control room. However, when personal mobiles are not allowed in the control room it is likely because they are a potential distraction. As indicated by the increase in stricter laws against using a mobile device while driving, they can be a serious and deadly distraction.

Mobile devices can be an unsafe distraction

Cellular signals will not penetrate the blast-resistant walls of the building

Finally, in most cases mobile phones simply most often will not have a signal inside a blast resistant building because the steel used in construction acts as a shield. So even if you do have a mobile phone, without a signal they will not transmit or receive.

So, what do you use for communications, in the case of the plant floor?

W*intercom can be used for a variety of applications within your plant, all at a FRACTION of the cost of a wired system.

Public address (PA) System

W*intercom provides a wireless public address system, for regular and for emergency communications or notifications within the plant.

Wireless Ethernet throughout the plant

With wireless Ethernet throughout the plant, you can update your CCTV system, use tablets and other metering/monitoring devices, virtually free from very expensive installation.

Phones

W*intercom allows phones to be connected without the requirement for wires.

Remote monitoring

All wintercom devices can be set up using our Harness cloud-based management portal and monitored remotely so you know your w*intercom system is always working.

Please contact Teletics to learn more about how you can use w*intercom.