30-10-2013

Det-Tronics recognized with exida’s safety award for the FlexSonic acoustic gas leak detector

Detector Electronics Corporation, the global leader in fire and gas safety systems, has been recognized with exida’s Safety Award, Sensors Category, for its revolutionary FlexSonic™ Acoustic Gas Leak Detector. Det-Tronics is part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

“The FlexSonic detector uses an acoustic sensing mechanism that is entirely different than most gas detectors,” said Dr. William Goble, exida principal partner and certification evaluating assessor. “During the witnessed validation testing, the performance of the FlexSonic™ detector was quite impressive,” he added.

Introduced in July, the FlexSonic detector analyzes 24 discrete ultrasonic bands, discerning between gas leaks and environmental noises, such as metal-on-metal contact, fans, machinery or vehicles. A high-fidelity microphone continuously monitors for the distinct ultrasound emitted by pressurized gas leaks across the widest spectrum of frequencies.

“Det-Tronics implemented new technology following a rigorous design process that meets the requirements of IEC 61508 SIL 2 capability,” said John Yozallinas, senior safety engineer, exida, when presenting the award. He added, “The FlexSonic detector is the first to be certified by exida using this technology; thus, it meets our criteria for innovation in functional safety, along with IEC 61508 certification, and is an accomplishment that exida is pleased to recognize with our 2013 Safety Award.”

“We are proud to be at the forefront of this evolving technology, and exida’s Safety Award is testament to our expert engineering and product teams who developed the FlexSonic acoustic detector,” said Jerry Slocum, managing director of Det-Tronics. “The Safety Award from exida further reaffirms our confidence in the FlexSonic detector as a revolutionary step forward in gas leak detection.”