During loading and unloading inflammable liquids or solids an explosive gas and dust atmosphere may arise – a single spark can be sufficient to initiate an explosion. 

To prevent this, the occurring electrostatic charges must be discharged safely.

TIMM’s Grounding Control Devices ensure static electricity is discharged to the ground by a grounding cable and continuously monitor the grounding quality. If there is an interruption of the grounding connection, the filling process will be interrupted immediately.

Electrostatic grounding protects against explosions – but only if it is actually present. With the TIMM BITE Smart LED, you can easily see whether a good grounding connection is in place – with minimal installation effort or fully mobile.

The TIMM BITE Smart LED monitors the conductivity and connection between the object to be grounded and a designated grounding point. Once a good grounding connection is established, the indicator lights up green. In the case of a poor connection, it shows red. This immediately indicates whether the safety standards are met and whether electrostatic discharges are safely diverted. The low power consumption ensures an extremely long operational life, even with continuous use.

Approved for use in Ex Zones 1, 2, 21, and 22, the TIMM BITE Smart LED can be used both in industrial buildings and outdoors. Its versatility makes it the ideal solution for both mobile and stationary applications.

Bottom loading of road tank trucks at oil terminals and refineries is introduced to minimize the VOC emissions and increase the environmental protection. It increase also the process efficiency by characterized by loading of fluids into closed tanker compartments with high loading rates. To prevent hazardous overfilling, the accumulation of electrostatic charges and the evaporation of emissions, an emergency shut-off system, supervised grounding, and vapor collection is mandatory by law and to ensure safe loading processes.

Vessels transferring flammable liquids at marine or inland terminals need to take precautions against potential sources of ignition while loading and unloading. Different materials (steel, sacrificial anodes, non-ferrous fittings, etc.) in an electrolyte (salt or brackish water) lead to a potential difference between ship and shore. Ship-water-pier can be regarded as a galvanic cell with low internal resistance and low voltage (of typical 200 – 700 mV).

The TIMM Marine Grounding System SEK-3 performs a safe and smart equipotential bonding line between ship and shore that prevents possible ignition sources by unintended short connections (e. g. by a metal rope or a metallic gangway) leading to balancing currents.

In addition to the recommended insulation between ship and shore an equipotential bonding line, that is only switched trough when a very low ohmic contacting is detected before, offers addition safety.