Abstract
In the hazardous areas where explosive gases, vapor or mists exist, electrical apparatus and installations must be the explosion-proof construction to prevent or limit the danger of the ignition of potentially explosive atmosphere. In Korea, nine types of protection have been specified in the government regulations at present: flameproof enclosure, pressurization, oil immersion, increased safety, intrinsic safety, non-incendive, powder filling, encapsulation, and special types. Among these types, the intrinsic safety has the construction which limit or by-pass igniting the electric energy using electronic devices. This type has lots of merits but at the same time requires a high-degree of technology. In this paper, we investigated several dominating factors which affect the minimum ignition energy; this energy plays a very important role in design and evaluation of the intrinsic safety type electrical apparatus. Electrode material, which is one of the most important factors, was intensively studied for the five sorts of material(Al, Cd, Mg, Sn, and Zn) with performing experiment in a low-voltage inductive circuit using IEC-type(International Electro-technical Commission) spark apparatus. The experimental results show that the minimum ignition energy of electrode material is varied: highest in Cd and lowest in Sn. We also confirmed the effect of electrode make-and-break speed.
