Intrinsically Safe Phones & Accessories -- What it Means & How it Works

Posted on Nov 18th 2019

Options for Hazardous Conditions Are Here

Intrinsically safe or IS, refers to the design of specific equipment that allows devices to be safely introduced within areas that could be highly flammable and potentially cause dangerous reactions. Sometimes the risk is obvious, with highly combustible materials (gasses or liquids) and other times it’s less obvious where the primary concern is an introduction of an unknown device that may be the igniter. There are certain scenarios where your wireless devices (cell phones, laptops and/or tablets) may increase the risk of combustible materials reacting.

In response to this, accessories have been created that either reduce the likelihood of reaction or remove it entirely and this category is referred to as “intrinsically safe”.

As an example, you may be a construction worker on the job and exposed to highly combustible materials, but you can’t walk around without a cell phone on what could be a very large and dangerous job site. Thus, you order an intrinsically safe case for your cell phone and the case itself provides the shield to the dangerous area.

However, with an intrinsically safe case, a vast majority of the time it is not a DYI installation. The device must be sent to the manufacturer of the case, in order to be correctly installed. Additionally, because of the complexity of the design and function, a higher cost is required.