Recently, CHC Ethernet-APL (Advanced Physical Layer) series switches have successfully passed ATEX and IECEx international explosion-proof certification, marking that CHC APL products have obtained the use of hazardous areas in factories in many countries around the world.

ATEX Certification &IECEx certification

ATEX is the European certification standard for explosion-proof equipment and systems. The ATEX Directive defines requirements for equipment used in environments where there is a risk of explosion and aims to ensure the safety and reliability of equipment and systems used in environments with explosive gases, vapors or dust.

IECEx is an explosion-proof certification system advocated by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and IECEx certification ensures the consistency and reliability of products. Products certified by IECEx can be exempted from repeated explosion-proof inspection and certification in 31 countries including Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia. Thus simplifying the market access process of products in the above countries, which can bring great convenience to users.

The certified products include the APL power switch AEP6208, the APL field switch AEF6512, and the APL power supply box unit integrated with the AEP6208.

APL Power switch AEP6208

The AEP6208 is an APL power switch with eight APL Trunk ports, providing 57.5W of power capacity for each port. The AEP6208 provides an independent explosion-proof certification, and integrators can directly refer to the AEP6208 certification report when using the AEP6208.

APL Onsite switch AEF6512

The AEF6512 is an APL field switch with 12 APL Spur ports. The power required by the AEF6512 and the connected APL meter is obtained through the APL Trunk loop, and no additional distribution power is required. The AEF6512’s APL Spur port provides power to the APL meter while communicating with the APL meter, and each branch provides overcurrent, undervoltage, overvoltage, and short circuit protection.

Similar to the field instrument, the AEF6512 comes with IP66 protection box, which can adapt to the harsh working environment of the industrial site and can be directly applied in the production danger area. At the same time, the AEF6512 is designed based on the latest IEC60079-47 intrinsic safety standard to support on-line maintenance in hazardous areas of plant production.

APL power supply box

The APL power supply box integrates the APL power switch, switching power supply, and protective chassis. The certified APL power supply box integration device can be used directly in the production hazard area of the plant.

Ethernet-apl is a two-wire (single-pair) Ethernet physical layer designed for the process industry. It is a single-pair Ethernet specification extension based on the IEEE802.3cg 10BASE-T1L (IEEE802.3CG-2019) standard, which can achieve a communication speed of 10Mbps and a communication distance of 1000 meters. The two-wire communication cable can realize data transmission and power supply for field equipment at the same time, meet the explosion-proof design specifications, and is suitable for production danger areas.

Advanced industrial networks based on APL can meet the special requirements in the field of automation, and various industrial Ethernet protocols based on TCP/IP, such as Ethernet/IP, HART-IP, PROFINET, OPC UA, EPA, etc., can run on APL. At the same time, the control system based on APL can be widely used in oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical and pharmaceutical scenarios.

Advanced industrial network solutions based on APL provide users with complete solutions from instruments, networks, control systems to applications, which can significantly reduce investment costs, shorten the construction period, improve the level of enterprise intelligence, realize the “E network to the end” from sensors to the central control room, and completely solve the communication problem of the “last kilometer” of the field instrument and system I/O. With fully digital communication, higher bandwidth and lossless data transmission, it helps customers to obtain real-time information of scattered, disordered and massive instruments at high speed and conveniently.

In the future, the central control technology will continue to promote the technological innovation of APL series products and create more excellent value for users.