Hardened Wireless Access Point Enclosures for Application in Explosive Atmospheres

When air, vapor, mist, or dust – alone or in combination – are present in settings where it or they can ignite under specified operating parameters, a potentially explosive environment occurs. "Hazardous" or "classified" areas or sites have a potentially explosive atmosphere. 

In potentially explosive situations, high-quality Wi-Fi access installations for chemical, defense, flight line, food processing, fueling, mining, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical applications are typical. These applications require the best available Wi-Fi performance in the roughest settings, whether for device telemetry, network access, site-to-site connectivity, or unified communications. Local and international laws have been put in place to reduce the risk of running networks and IIoT devices in potentially explosive environments. 

Chemical plants, refineries, oil and gas platforms, mining operations, grain processing, and plastics manufacturing all require hazardous area wireless access point enclosures designed and certified for usage in these environments. By preventing tampering, vandalism, and theft, these enclosures also give your wireless access point an extra layer of security. Because the expense of purchasing and installing an explosion-proof enclosure can be anywhere between 4 and 20 times the cost of the access point it is supposed to protect, using an external enclosure is the most realistic solution for quickly evolving wireless technology. It's much less expensive to replace the access point while keeping the protective enclosure intact than replacing the enclosure entirely with each technology upgrade.

Industrial wireless access point enclosures designed for Class 1, Division 1, Hazardous Locations, Groups C & D, ATEX Zone 1, and are available for an ever-increasing range of standard access points.

Analynk access point enclosures house specific wireless access points from various manufacturers, making installation simple. Every model comes with UL-listed explosion-proof antennas, mounting brackets custom-tailored for the access point equipment, and RF cables for connecting the antennas. Penetrations in enclosures correspond with the specified access point. Designs accommodate a variety of access points from Symbol, Cisco, Meru, Aruba, HP, and Motorola, with more models added regularly to accommodate additional wireless access points. 

The Analynk website contains a list of all wireless access point devices and their companion enclosures. If an access point you want to use isn't on the list, contact Analynk. They may accommodate your requirement with a minor modification to an existing product. 

Analynk Wireless is a company that specializes in industrial wireless communications. Analynk welcomes your wireless communication challenges, so get in touch and share your specifications.

Adapting Wireless Access Points to Hazardous Areas

Cisco 3602E and Hazardous Enclosure

Wireless technologies are not new in industrial process control, and are increasingly used for real-time control and critical applications. One key piece of hardware is the wireless access point (AP). Wireless access points are networking devices that allows a Wi-Fi device to connect to a wired network.

In autonomous architectures, standalone wireless access points are used to implement all WLAN (wireless local area network) functions. They  have to be configured and managed individually and are typically used in smaller installations or stand-alone applications.

Aruba-AP70 and Hazardous Enclosure

Unified architecture (UA) is preferred in large-scale, plant-wide wireless deployments because of its ability to handle a variety of clients and applications. Unified architecture offers guest systems, intrusion protection and facilitates plant-wide mobility. Centralized control and easy configuration are delivered through light-weight access points (LWAP) and wireless LAN controllers (WLC).

Well Known Manufacturers of Access Points

Meru AP-1020e and Hazardous Enclosure

Cisco Systems, Inc. develops, manufactures and sells networking hardware, and telecommunications equipment. Cisco specializes into specific tech markets, such as Internet of Things (IoT), domain security and energy management.

Miraki MR72 and Hazardous Enclosure

Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, brings Wi-Fi wireless LAN mobility solutions to enterprise networks. Its core products are wireless Access Points (APs), wired switches, mobility controllers, and network management software.

Meru Networks is a supplier of wireless local area networks (WLANs) to healthcare, enterprise, hospitality, K-12 education, higher education, and other markets.

Zebra-AP7532 and Hazardous Enclosure

Meraki was acquired by Cisco Systems in December 2012 and is an equipment and tech company who's solutions include wireless, switching, security, EMM, communications, and security cameras, all centrally managed from the web.

Zebra Technologies/Motorola manufactures computer systems that include printing, barcode, communication, mobile computing and advanced data capture communications technologies to the manufacturing supply chain, retail, healthcare and government sectors.

Adapting Access Points for Hazardous Area Use

In industrial facilities, hazardous areas are defined as areas where flammable liquids, gases, vapors or combustible dusts exist in sufficient concentration to produce an explosion or fire. In order to locate access points in hazardous areas, specialized access point enclosures fitted with explosion-proof antennae must be used. These enclosures provide UL listed, Class 1, Division 1, Groups C &; D, Zone 1, ATEX Zone 1 antennas (2.4GHz and 5.0GHz), mountings brackets and hardware.

Analynk, a manufacturer of wireless instrumentation in Columbus, OH, offers a wide variety of hazardous area access point enclosures as well as explosion-proof antennas.  Contact them by visiting https://analynk.com or calling 614-755-5091.