Intellex Acquires Expert by Big Village

We're thrilled to announce that Intellex has acquired Expert by Big Village, effective March 22, 2024. This strategic move enhances our capabilities and strengthens our commitment to delivering exceptional solutions to our customers.

Stay tuned for more updates on how this acquisition will benefit our clients and experts.

For inquiries or more information, please contact us at info@intellex.com.

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Expert Details

Hazardous Locations Equipment Certifications (Intrinsically Safe), Gas Detection

ID: 729740 Canada

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Expert has 16 years of experience in designing, assessing and certifying equipment to national and international standards for intrinsically safe equipment. He has designed many intrinsically safe devices, including gas detectors, fire detectors and other systems. Applied standards include UL 913, ANSI/UL 60079-11, EN 50020 (ATEX), and IEC 60079-11. Nearly all of his designs have been to Class I, Division 1 and Class I, Zone 0 standards - the most stringent classifications available.

As part of this work, Expert has created many designs for industrial gas detection. He is an expert in the application and operation of all types of gas detection sensors, including electrochemical, catalytic, semiconductor, infrared and photo-ionization types, as well as industrial gas detection in general. He has designed, constructed, tested and certified some of the most successful designs in the industry. He also has experience in infrared and ultraviolet optical fire detection and general embedded electronics design and manufacturing.

Expert is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and has an interest the application of Lean principles to the practice of electronic product development and engineering. He has worked extensively with numerous major certification agencies worldwide, including UL, FM, CSA, DNV, Demko, SIMTARS, LCIE and SIRA.

System Design: He was approached by an industry-leading services company to design a hazardous locations rated safety system for their transportable equipment. This involved designing new modules and hardware from new, as well as integrating various existing components. He completed over six complete system concepts within eight weeks of inception, including thorough review against the latest certification standards. He subsequently completed experiments showing the selected option was viable, performed the system design and sourced and/or procured all the required material. The system was certified intrinsically safe for Class I, Division 1, Groups A-D, T4 with the potential to achieve both ATEX and IEC certification to Class I, Zone 1, IIC.Design Assistance: A leading firm in the field of fire and gas detection equipment approached him for consultation on an ongoing design effort. The initial consultation call showed several areas of concern, including potentially incorrect assumptions and interpretations made on the part of the certifications agency involved. He was retained as a consultant to help clarify the requirements for the design and potentially prepare arguments as to why the certification agency interpretations were incorrect per the applied standard(s).Design Review: On more than one occasion, he was contacted by a large multinational corporation that had a legacy product that was facing a recertification challenge. In one such instance, he examined the construction of the existing product and compared it to the new, incoming requirements for hazardous locations certification. Documentation and information was lacking on the product, but he was able to determine the methods of protection used and the application towards intrinsic safety. In this case, the cost to redesign the product to meet the new requirements outweighed the value of the product offering.Certifications Review: He was retained by a leading GPS manufacturing firm to investigate methods by which the company's product line might be made suitable for hazardous location use. Drawing on his experience with other, parallel products, he found that it was possible to achieve certification provided the agency used certain interpretations. He contacted an alternative certifications agency for the client and was able to establish that their approach was compatible with the product design, ensuring a strong likelihood of the existing products achieving intrinsically safe certification without significant modifications. Other areas of concern, such as the use of certain electrical components, were also highlighted as areas of concern and strategies to deal with them were developed.Product Design and Certifications: During his career, Expert has designed several portable, fixed, single and multi-gas gas detection monitoring instruments. All designs were certified as intrinsically safe to Class I, Division 1, Groups A-D T4 and/or Class I, Zone 0, IIC, T4. During this phase of his career, he became experienced in all of different intrinsically safe standards in use worldwide, as well as the many versions, revisions and interpretations created over the ensuing two decades. New technologies presented unique and previously undefined challenges to intrinsically safe certification, requiring novel approaches and inventive, well-reasoned arguments to be presented to the various agencies worldwide. None of his designs ever failed to achieve the target certifications.

Education

Year Degree Subject Institution
Year: 1994 Degree: B.Sc.EE Subject: Electrical Engineering Institution: University of Alberta, Canada

Work History

Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2010 to Present Employer: Undisclosed Title: Consultant Department:
Responsibilities:
Consultant.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2007 to 2009 Employer: Net Safety Monitoring Title: Engineering Manager Department: Engineering
Responsibilities:
Responsible for managing the Engineerig product development and testing group.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 2006 to 2007 Employer: BW by Honeywell Title: System Design Engineer Department: Engineering
Responsibilities:
Provided oversight and technical guidance for new systems and designs to the Engineering group.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1994 to 2006 Employer: BW Technologies Title: Senior Design Engineer Department: Research & Development
Responsibilities:
Responsible for the design, development, construction, testing and certification of industrial gas detection devices.

Career Accomplishments

Associations / Societies
APEGGA
Licenses / Certifications
P.Eng

Fields of Expertise

carbon dioxide sensor, catalytic gas sensor, combustible gas detection, combustible gas sensor, electrochemical gas sensor, embedded sensor, flame detector, gas detection, gas sensor, hydrogen detection, infrared absorption gas analysis, infrared sensor, international explosion standard, intrinsic safety, intrinsically safe, ATEX, hazardous area classification, lean six sigma, non-volatile memory, software process improvement, operational process improvement, multilayer printed circuit board manufacturing, lean manufacturing, modern management tools, Underwriters Laboratories test, employee protection, lithium battery safety, printed circuit board coating material, hazardous location, Factory Mutual Research Corporation, bill of materials, real-time measurement, lower explosive limit, hazardous area motor, gas property, acceptance test, electrical schematic diagram, British Standards Institution, embedded software, chlorine gas, embedded processing, fireproof, flammability standard, explosion-proof appliance, hazard, gas explosion, life safety, ignition source, improvement, multilayer printed circuit board, air toxic chemical, explosion prevention, electrical product safety, printed circuit board design-for-manufacturability, printed circuit board design-for-assembly, printed circuit board design, flammability measurement, fire detector, manufacturing process optimization, Canadian Standards Association, Mine Safety and Health Administration, electrical product design, printed circuit board layout software, continuous quality improvement, printed circuit board assembly process, printed circuit board, read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electronic product development, optimization, circuit design, surface-mount soldering, flammability, real-time system, Underwriters Laboratories electrical standard, International Electrotechnical Commission standard, Underwriters Laboratories, toxic chemical, sensor, real-time operating system, process optimization, microprocessor, microcontroller, international standard, firmware, electronics manufacturing, circuit protection, business process re-engineering

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