Cooper Crouse-Hinds enables safe paint production

A range of explosion-proof electrical equipment from Cooper Crouse-Hinds (CEAG) is helping to ensure the safe production of paint and powder coatings at HMG Paints.

Based in Manchester, HMG Paints manufactures a range of paints and powder coatings for a variety of different applications, including commercial transport, automotive, general industrial and the marine sector.

Established in 1930, HMG Paints now employs around 200 staff at its Manchester site.

David McDonald, maintenance manager at HMG said: 'I've been with HMG Paints for more than 18 years.

'Over the last five years, I've purchased around 200 fluorescent light fittings and approximately 15 isolator switches from Cooper Crouse-Hinds.

'The light fittings and switches have been very reliable.

'They are very well designed, enabling us to install and replace units very quickly.

Production of paint and powder coatings is potentially a hazardous environment and so safety of employees is critical.

All electrical equipment installed in these hazardous areas at the site is ATEX-certified to the required Zone.

According to McDonald, 99 per cent of fluorescent light fittings installed at the site are located in potentially explosive gas atmospheres.

The use of powder pigments in the production of coatings means that some electrical equipment needs to be protected from dust, as well as paint fumes and vapours.

McDonald said there are approximately 350 original simplex light fittings across five buildings at the HMG Paints site in Manchester.

'These lighting units are becoming less reliable but very time-consuming to service and maintain.

'It took me the best part of a day to service one of the original simplex lights because I had to disassemble the whole unit in order to fix a specific tube fault.

'We therefore decided to gradually replace all the lights with new twin five-foot versions,' added McDonald.

In his efforts to source replacement light fittings, McDonald was assisted by Mark Lees, sales engineer at local electrical distributor Cable Systems based in Warrington.

HMG Paints has now installed more than two hundred ELLK 92 fluorescent light fittings from CEAG across two buildings at its Manchester site, and some units have also been installed at the company's warehouse in Scarborough.

The CEAG ELLK 92 light fittings are available for ATEX Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 21 and Zone 22 hazardous areas.

The lighting units come in 2, 4 or 5ft lengths, with twin lights.

HMG Paints has installed the 5ft versions.

The lighting units are designed with a glass-fibre-reinforced plastic enclosure and a polycarbonate protective bowl.

The units are protected to IP66 (EN 60529).

Permissible ambient temperatures are from - 20C up to +50C.

'Our maintenance technicians can now individually isolate each unit quickly and easily.

'The ELLK 92 is around a third of the weight of the original lighting units.

'Previously, it needed two of our technicians to install or replace the original lighting units.

'Now this can be done by one person,' said McDonald.

'Since installing CEAG light fittings, we've saved valuable maintenance time and resources.

'As the units are wired-through, it's very fast and easy to connect rows of lights in the factory.

'While the original light fittings took hours to install or replace, the CEAG units take just 20 minutes.

As well as fluorescent light fittings, HMG Paints has also installed around 30 CEAG isolator switches, several of these were custom designed.

The switches are used on various types of drives and electric motors around the site.

They are used to isolate the motors and to trip the units if they become overloaded.

All CEAG switches were purchased through Cable Systems .

In addition to supplying systems and components certified for ATEX environments, Cooper Crouse-Hinds also offers hazardous area equipment to IEC and NEC standards, as well as other international approvals for Eastern Europe, China and North America.

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