Everything Under Control (Promotion) Ex protected switchgear cabinet for vaccine production

Bartec, as safety experts in the Ex field, have collaborated with their client GfS Automation near Frankfurt, a specialist for industrial automation, to develop and deliver a switchgear cabinet that will be used in the Ex field during vaccine production for vaccines against the Covid-19 virus. These were constructed according to the Ex protection principle of pressurized enclosures: the switchgear cabinet is flushed through the introduction of a protective gas and kept under positive pressure so that a potentially explosive gas from the outside environment is unable to penetrate it. The ignition source in the switchgear cabinet that is under this protection would be unable to ignite explosive gas. "We are very pleased that we were able to make a small contribution toward fighting the pandemic," said Robert Kancar, Business Development Manager ESS at Bartec Sales Germany.

The solution as constructed by Bartec differentiates itself from competing products through the high level of vertical integration, more specifically through the use of Ex components and assemblies that were developed and manufactured in-house. Especially in the case of pressurized enclosures, it is of considerable advantage if all of the components installed in the enclosure- such as switches, buttons, Comex control stations, operating and display units (Polaris), as well as the control of the pressurized enclosure (the Ex p Silas control unit)- come from the company's own portfolio. Factors such as accuracy of fit, production quality, and reliability play an extremely important role in this. This also makes construction easier and accelerates approval; delivery times are more easily calculated and cost benefits realized. On the other hand, the interior doesn't change much at all: the control components specified by or installed by the customers are largely identical to those in the (non-explosion-proof) industry version.

Successful Collaboration

Jochem Halberstadt, Team Leader Hardware Planning Automation at GfS, was impressed with the high amount of flexibility from Bartec and the cooperative partnership: "We work in very close contact to develop client specific solutions. The seminars about explosion protection from the Bartec Academy were exceptionally valuable and helpful, as our employees received the best possible training for the challenging requirements of explosion protection." In the meantime, the basic model of the control/switchgear cabinet has been manufactured and delivered several times; the only differences were in the choice of cooling system, which was changed according to the particular application. Both an air cooling system as well as an air/water cooling system were used. Following successful approval by GfS and the end client, the switchgear cabinets are now in use – Covid-19 remains an issue in the year 2022. Bartec has once again demonstrated its competence and efficiency.