Commercial and Industrial
Motorola Solutions EX Series Portable Radio for Explosive Environments
By
Motorola Solutions Innovation Design
Description
The DP4000 Ex is designed to be safe for use in explosion-prone, dangerous environments such as oil rigs, mines, and refineries. It is specially certified equipment to minimize the risk of spark-induced ignition from explosive gasses, combustible dust and chemical vapors. The vision in creating this product was to achieve the right aesthetic and ergonomic solution while meeting stringent ATEX (Atmosphere Explosive) safety standards. While previous portable radios were designed to merely reduce Electrostatic discharge (ESD), the DP4000 Ex is molded in ESD-conductive material. This enables a portable radio that is completely ESD-free, ATEX-compliant and visually appealing for end users.
Key Features
and/or Benefits
Traditional ATEX radios are designed with irregular surface features, such as grooves or rib patterns, to reduce ESD build up on exterior housing surfaces. Designers are constrained to unappealing user forms and engineers are challenged to determine if surfaces are free from ESD build up. Using ESD conductive plastics for the first time in a two-way radio, this allows designers to create well thought out designs without the previous engineering constraints driven by sensitive surface characteristics. This new approach assured our design would be completely ESD free and therefore able to achieve ATEX certification without further iteration.
The DP4000 Ex is designed in a thin package. Dual-shot materials and a high-capacity battery threatened to increase the overall thickness of the radio, reducing wearability and making it more cumbersome to hold. Teams reviewed internal component stack ups and scrutinized every dimension. Air gaps, wall thickness and assembly methods were optimized to assure the slimmest radio package compared to competitors. At 39.8mm, thickness with a high-capacity battery for long-duty cycles, large color display, and full keypad layout, the DP4000 Ex radio is one of the slimmest radios in the field of ATEX certified devices.
The DP4000 Ex is designed with the end user in mind with its large push-to-talk button, accessible knobs and a user friendly control layout that can be easily operated with gloves. Its blue color denotes that the device is safe to use in hazardous conditions and also helps ensure that it can be easily identified.
