ABB launches hazardous-area wireless devices
8 Aug 2012
London – ABB has launched a wireless mesh router and wireless bridge for hazardous field automation applications. The Tropos 1410-HAZ is certified for use in class I, division 2 (US) and class I, zone 2 (US and Canada) hazardous locations.
The certification, said ABB, allows the unit to be deployed in locations such as the wellheads of oil and gas wells, oil and natural gas storage and processing facilities, refineries, chemical production facilities, waste water and water treatment plants, and pulp and paper plants.
The routers and wireless bridges are claimed to create secure, IP-based field area communication networks serving thousands of automation endpoints such as intelligent electrical devices, industrial process controllers and SCADA devices.
An integrated firewall and VPN extend enterprise-class security to legacy devices installed in the field that have lacked state-of-the-art security technology, adds ABB. The device can be centrally managed by the Tropos Control wireless network management application.
Target applications include automated metering infrastructure and distribution automation for utilities; telemetry and mining management systems for mining; wellhead monitoring and logging for oil and gas; traffic signal management and video monitoring for transportation; process control for refining and chemicals; and SCADA for a wide variety of vertical markets.
“The Tropos 1410-HAZ brings broadband wireless communications to potentially hazardous areas of large, outdoor industrial facilities, supporting current applications while providing the foundation for future field automation applications such as the digital oilfield,” said Andy Balaschak, product management director for ABB’s Tropos product line.
