By acquiring ecom, Pepperl+Fuchs expands its portfolio with a partner that has been a household name in the industry for decades—the market leaders for intrinsically safe mobile devices such as featurephones, smartphones, and tablets for explosion-hazardous areas. With solutions for mobile safety and communication, customer applications are quickly digitized. This unlocks new potential and increases workflow safety, efficiency, and transparency—either in conventional applications or for Industry 4.0 scenarios.

A Tab-Ex® 02 DZ2, Viator® Bluetooth® HART interface, and DevComDroid HART communicator app offer a fully-equipped HART communicator kit
for Class I, Division 2 and/or Zone 2 hazardous areas. The tablet’s large, rugged touch screen display makes it easy to configure HART instrumentation.

Developed completely in-house, the intrinsically safe Android 9 smartphone Smart-Ex® 02 has a large 5-inch display made of scratch-resistant Gorilla® Glass, an ergonomic design, advanced features, and optimized accessories. With an extended temperature range, the Smart-Ex® 02 is designed for the most demanding Zone 1/21 and Div. 1 environments.

The Ex-Handy 10 for Zone 1/21 and Div. 1 is optimized for future industrial applications and covers a wide range of applications from pure communication to push-to-talk. As a complete proprietary development, the new featurephone generation is based on a sophisticated technology and offers suitable accessories from a single source. Due to Pepperl+Fuchs’ global presence, users benefit from quick and direct support on-site.

The Android-based tablet Tab-Ex® 02 for explosion-hazardous areas offers the oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries new customer-oriented mobile solutions for location-independent access to company data. Compact, lightweight, and certified for Zones 1/21 and 2/22, as well as Div. 1 and Div. 2, this tablet supports the “Mobile Worker” in handling various tasks and applications (asset surveys, material tracking, operator rounds, inspection and maintenance).

In addition to its large display, the explosion-proof tablet PC Pad-Ex® 01 DZ2 features speedy fifth generation Intel®-Core™ i5/i7 CPUs and supports Windows® 10/Pro. Battery life lasts up to seven hours. The combination of robust usability and computing power suits this mobile device for outdoor use in any environment: It complements or even substitutes for desktop PCs, laptops, or wall-mounted displays.

The rugged, powerful Smart-Ex® Watch 01 introduces a new type of hands-free communication and navigation via advanced voice control and wrist gestures. A rotating bezel allows for intuitive, quick, and easy scrolling through apps and instructions—even with gloves. This enables greater protection for employees.

The CUBE 800 dual-camera system with HD optics and thermal imaging technology delivers videos, images, and indications based on hot spots. They can be displayed and saved on mobile devices, and even shared via the Onsight Connect platform. CUBE 800 is suitable for attaching to hard hats, headbands, or monopods that enable visuals to be captured in hard-to-reach places.

Designed for push-to-talk communication in harsh industrial environments and Zone 1/21 and Div. 1 hazardous areas, the RSM-Ex 01 intrinsically safe remote speaker microphone offers operating times of up to 78 hours. Mobile workers benefit from a clear audio signal and multi-functional buttons that allow for intuitive operation, even when wearing gloves.

The intrinsically safe barcode scanner/RFID reader Ident-Ex® is an efficient solution for challenging scan operations in explosion-hazardous areas. Due to its modular design, this robust handheld can be adapted to the requirements of different scan tasks. Different read head modules are available and can be easily changed. The Ident-Ex 01 uses Bluetooth for pairing with ecom base devices or any other mobile device.

The i.roc® Ci70 –Ex is the latest product from the well-known i-roc® range. This intrinsically safe handheld computer combines state-of-the-art technology with a flexible, modular head concept for diverse identification systems like LF, HF, and UHF RFID, or 1-D barcode laser scanners and 2-D multi-range barcode imagers. It offers many global approvals for use in explosion-hazardous areas—from ATEX and ATEX mining, through IECEx, to NEC and MSHA mining.

BLE beacons are small Bluetooth beacons that emit a signal at periodic intervals. With Bluetooth 4.0 support, these beacons are compatible with popular smartphones and tablets and can be recognized by these devices over a distance of up to 200 m. This enables solutions for lone worker protection, physical access control, guard control systems, visitor guidance systems, and even indoor localization.