The newly upgraded intrinsically safe Earth-Rite TELLUS II from Newson Gale offers effective, constantly verified static ground monitoring for drums, IBCs, and other mobile or portable equipment during hazardous area operations. It’s suitable for use in the handling, transporting, or mixing of combustible products. The TELLUS II provides the operator with a bright green flashing LED to confirm a positive connection to ground, and also provides a pair of output contacts for interlock with pumps, valves or other control or alarm devices.

Operating in real time, the system confirms that a positive connection to ground remains intact for the duration of the operation. As long as the resistance of the connection to a designated ground exists and remains below the generally accepted international safety standard of 10 ohms, a bright green pulsing LED display inside the hazardous area assures the operator of that there is no buildup of dangerous static electricity.

Should the resistance to the grounding point rise above 10 Ohms, or should the ground point be lost, the pulsing LED Display display is de-activated, warning the operators that a dangerous condition could be developing. Additionally, an interlock mode (a pair of changeover contacts) is activated, providing an extra margin of safety such as sounding an audio alarm or initiating an automatic safe shut-down procedure.

The Earth-Rite TELLUS II static grounding system consists of a power supply unit and controller which is mounted in a safe area as much as 1600 ft. from the hazardous area. Mounted within the hazardous area is the intrinsically safe ground-connection status indicator. It includes a two-pole grounding clamp on retractable connection cables available in various lengths. Both the PSU/controller and indicator/junction box are waterproof and dust-tight (IP66 / NEMA 4X).

Richard Nass