Detector Electronics Corporation (Det-Tronics), a worldwide supplier of industrial hazard safety solutions, including flame detection, gas detection and hazard mitigation systems, is the newest member of the Fieldbus Foundation. The company’s Safety Integrity Level (SIL)-2 flame and gas safety systems range from conventional panels to fault-tolerant, addressable systems.
Founded in 1973, Det-Tronics designs and manufactures one of the industry’s largest selections of flame detectors, gas sensors and safety systems. It also maintains a complete fire and gas test facility, one of the largest in the world.
Det-Tronics has more than 280 employees, 76 representatives, and 18 sales offices around the globe serving the oil and gas, refining, automotive, aerospace, munitions, and chemical markets.
Fieldbus Foundation marketing manager Bill Tatum welcomed Det-Tronics in joining the foundation, which corresponds to the growing market demand for fieldbus-based safety solutions.
“Our FOUNDATION fieldbus for Safety Instrumented Functions (FF-SIF) development provides new opportunities to leverage the powerful capabilities of fieldbus instrumentation and advanced diagnostics to optimize plant safety systems,” said Tatum. “Det-Tronics is a major supplier to industrial safety users, and we welcome their contributions to our organization and its technology.”
By joining the Fieldbus Foundation, Det-Tronics hopes to achieve recognition and access to new markets for its product line. As a division of United Technology Corporation, the company also expects to enhance its visibility within the fieldbus community and contribute to the growth of the market.
“Our customers requested a fieldbus interface to safety products, and we would like to support them by offering a strong, industry-accepted communications protocol,” said Det-Tronics Director of Marketing, Cliff Anderson. “Our over-arching goal is to help our customers achieve improved personnel safety and plant performance.”
Det-Tronics’ advanced fire and gas safety systems support addressable-loop and point-to-point architectures, and all of its solutions are highly fault-tolerant, configurable detection and releasing systems. The company’s optical flame detectors incorporate the latest technologies in ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR), UV/IR, dual IR, and multispectrum IR to maximize detection while minimizing false alarms.
In addition, Det-Tronics’ gas detectors accurately detect the presence of combustible and toxic gases. The full line includes nanotechnology metal oxide semiconductor (NTMOS), catalytic, electrochemical and IR absorption technologies.