

By acquiring ecom, Pepperl+Fuchs expands its portfolio with a partner that has been a household name in the industry for decades—the market leaders for intrinsically safe mobile devices such as featurephones, smartphones, and tablets for explosion-hazardous areas. With solutions for mobile safety and communication, customer applications are quickly digitized. This unlocks new potential and increases workflow safety, efficiency, and transparency—either in conventional applications or for Industry 4.0 scenarios.
The i.roc® Ci70 –Ex is the latest product from the well-known i-roc® range. This intrinsically safe handheld computer combines state-of-the-art technology with a flexible, modular head concept for diverse identification systems like LF, HF, and UHF RFID, or 1-D barcode laser scanners and 2-D multi-range barcode imagers. It offers many global approvals for use in explosion-hazardous areas—from ATEX and ATEX mining, through IECEx, to NEC and MSHA mining.
The intrinsically safe barcode scanner/RFID reader Ident-Ex® is an efficient solution for challenging scan operations in explosion-hazardous areas. Due to its modular design, this robust handheld can be adapted to the requirements of different scan tasks. Different read head modules are available and can be easily changed. The Ident-Ex 01 uses Bluetooth for pairing with ecom base devices or any other mobile device.
The Android-based tablet Tab-Ex® for explosion-hazardous areas offers the oil and gas, petrochemical, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries new customer-oriented mobile solutions for location-independent access to company data. Compact, lightweight, and certified for Zones 1/21 and 2/22, as well as Div 1. and Div.2, this tablet supports the “Mobile Worker” in handling various tasks and applications (asset surveys, material tracking, operator rounds, inspection and maintenance).
In addition to its large display, the explosion-proof tablet PC Pad-Ex® 01 DZ2 features speedy fifth generation Intel®-Core™ i5/i7 CPUs and supports Windows® 10/Pro. Battery life lasts up to seven hours. The combination of robust usability and computing power suits this mobile device for outdoor use in any environment: It complements or even substitutes for desktop PCs, laptops, or wall-mounted displays.
As a 4G/LTE capable Android smartphone and mobile computer, the SmartEx® 01 efficiently modernizes communication and collaboration between mobile workers, control side, and backend systems. This new level of online connectivity and coverage leads to improved work processes and reduced costs. The Smart Ex®01 supports a wide range of industrial applications such as the “man down alarm” that sends warning messages including position information. It can also be used to access online documents, digital photos, and videos.
For users who need a more advanced mobile phone but not a smartphone, the Ex-Handy 09 featurephone (successor product to the well-known Ex-Handy 08) is designed to meet this need. It provides both push-button and touchscreen mobile phone capabilities plus the performance and connectivity to support simple and more intensive Android applications such as lone worker protection, push-to-talk, and other industrial apps.
BLE beacons are small Bluetooth beacons that emit a signal at periodic intervals. With Bluetooth 4.0 support, these beacons are compatible with popular smartphones and tablets and can be recognized by these devices over a distance of up to 200 m. This enables solutions for lone worker protection, physical access control, guard control systems, visitor guidance systems, and even indoor localization.