Schischek, A Company Profile

For over 30 years now Schischek has supplied electric Explosionproof products for building services to a wide range of industry sectors including Oil & Gas (onshore and offshore), Ship Building, Chemical, Pharmaceutical & Water Treatment.

The company slogan “Security for Life, Health, Values” describes our ethos and philosophy. It’s not only about research & development, manufacturing and sales but also the security of plant, equipment, machines, systems and most importantly people. Observing all relevant norms and certification, a wide product range has been created for use in Explosionproof zones in the HVAC industry.

Initially considered a rather niche and exotic product offering, Schischek has built its name with innovative components and concepts in international markets. Always under the header of “Explosionproof for technical building services”, actuators for air dampers, fire dampers, air volume control and valve actuation (both rotary and linear) have been developed for a wide range of conditions of service and environment. The range is complemented by a comprehensive range of sensors, both switching and continuous, for temperature, humidity, pressure, fan belt monitoring and frost protection.

During the last 30 years, one of the obstacles to the universal adoption of electrical solutions has always been the established pneumatic solution. Historically, Explosionproof has been associated with pneumatics. The first guidelines for protection against explosions at the end of the 19th century prescribed safe and operational solutions which were mainly based on pneumatic technologies.

When, in the 1960’s and 1970’s electronics became part of every household, industrial installations and systems lagged behind. At that time electric Explosionproof devices were normally cumbersome, heavy, awkward to mount and expensive. A great deal of education, training and of course product development and improvement along with more competive pricing were necessary to convince customers and potential customers of the benefits of electric Explosionproof. With electronic drive and control technology gaining an increasing market share, the interest in electrical Explosionproof components rose in parallel. Now the benefits of an electric solution, such as simple connection, installation and maintenance as well as cost effectiveness, are well established and appreciated.

Today’s Explosionproof products hardly differ in size, weight, installation and ease of use from standard devices but they do, however, remain more expensive to manufacture due to the complex certification and approvals process. They are, however, significantly less expensive than 30 years ago!

Right from the start, when developing new models, Schischek has paid attention to the highest protection classes and the use of the devices with all types of gases, mists, vapours and dust. Thus the whole range can be used in ATEX zones 1, 2, 21 and 22. All approvals are obtained on the basis of the latest Explosionproof norms and only from serious certified bodies such as the PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig, Germany). Additionally, we pay a lot of attention to enlarge the scope of approvals by applying for international certificates. Therefore, today’s product range is not only certified according to ATEX 94/9/EG but also to IEC-Ex, ExGost (Russia) and CSA/ FM (Canada and USA). Moreover, certification for a number of products is also available for Ukraine and Australia.

From a technology standpoint not only Explosionproof was realised but also special functions were included that make the devices attractive for the use in non hazardous areas. Such technical features are e.g. actuators with a 1 second, spring return in case of power failure (security function), actuators with up to 70 Nm spring return, a self- adaptive universal power supply with a range from 24 to 230 VAC/DC. All units come with protection class IP 66 or as stainless steel solutions robust enough for aggressive surroundings.

Because of the availability of devices for ATEX zones 1,2, 21, 22, but also for zones 2 and 22 and now also for the safe area, Schischek introduced its own colour coding to indicate the appropriate application area at a glance and to avoid any mistakes. This, plus the product name, creates a clear differentiation of where the products may be used: e.g. the range of quarter turn actuators come as ExMax (yellow), REdMax (red) and InMax (green). The designation ‘Ex’ means apt for ATEX zones 1, 2, 21, 22; ‘Red’ stands for zones 2 and 22, ‘In’ stands for industrial applications in the safe zone. The addition of …’Max’ indicates the quarter turn actuators, ..’Run’ stands for linear valve actuators,’ ..Cos’ are the continuous sensor range and’ ..Bin’ the binary sensors.

Over and beyond the standard range there is a series of OEM products which are developed with the individual customer and adopted for his special needs.

The fields of application are wide: from the dust extraction system, via the paint line, disposals, waste water plants, container ships and tankers, oil- and gas- platforms, compressor stations of gas pipelines, all the way to industrial processes that use potentially explosive media, extraction units in tunnel systems or air flow control units in chemical laboratories.

Speciality in the business of Explosionproof product alone is only half the story. Competent consultancy and local assistance are at least as important. The quality of the overall system is not only defined by the right choice of components but by the right installation, the correct use and the functionality. Know how in the field of Explosionproof therefore is a must. For these reasons Schischek has built up an international organisation, and is active with its own subsidiaries throughout Europe, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Korea and the USA. Representative organisations and local partners take care of the business in countries such as Austria, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Schischek Ltd.
Tel: 01245 256007
Website: www.schischek.co.uk

Published: %dth %B %Y