FM-100 Explosion-Proof Series

What it removes

Water, gas and particulate from hydraulic, turbine and industrial gear oils -- in an enclosure, a motor and a control set that are rated for a hazardous area. The purification duty is the ordinary one; the engineering is in making sure the machine can be installed where the oil is, rather than in a safe room three hundred metres away with pipework running back and forth.

How it works

The separation is centrifugal. Everything that can produce a spark or a hot surface -- motor, starter, controls, instrumentation -- sits inside an explosion-proof enclosure, and the certification covers the assembly rather than the components individually. That distinction is the one that matters at commissioning: a certified motor in an uncertified enclosure is not an explosion-proof machine, and the paperwork has to say so.

Where it is used

Refineries, tank farms, fuel depots, paint and solvent plants, and the coal-handling and fuel-oil areas of power stations. In each case the oil is the same oil a standard purifier would treat; what changes is that the purifier has to stand inside the classified zone rather than outside it. The power-generation installations and petrochemical work in the case list are where this model is normally specified.

Options and service

Explosion-proof motor, controls and enclosure as a certified assembly, with the certification documents supplied. Remote start from a safe area where the enclosure cannot be sited close enough to the reservoir. Spares are held to the certified specification -- substituting an uncertified component voids the assembly rating.