ModRAE

One Instrument, Reconfigured Rather Than Replaced

Most sites end up with several instruments, because detection requirements differ: a broad VOC screening tool, something for confined space entry, and something else when a specific compound has to be measured at trace level. That’s three instruments, three calibration schedules and three sets of training.

The ModRAE is built to collapse that. Sensing sits in interchangeable smart cartridges with a quick release, slide and lock design. So moving from broad screening to targeted measurement is a cartridge change, not a different instrument.

That matters beyond convenience. When a regulation changes, or a new hazard appears on site, the response is a cartridge, rather than a capital purchase and a retraining exercise.

Cartridges That Stay Ready

This is the detail that makes modularity work in practice, and it’s easy to miss.

Sensors need to be powered to stay in a ready state. Unpowered, they drift, and need time to stabilise once reconnected. So on many modular instruments, a spare sensor sitting in a drawer isn’t actually ready, and swapping one means waiting.

Each ModRAE cartridge has SensorRAE technology built in. A coin cell keeps the sensors biased while the cartridge is out of the instrument, so it can be stored, transported or sent for servicing, and stay ready throughout. Cartridges can also be calibrated and serviced independently, without taking the instrument apart.

The practical effect is that a spare cartridge in a vehicle or store is ready to use.

Seven Photoionisation Configurations

The photoionisation range is where this platform stands out, and the spread is wide.

The 100 ppm configuration resolves to 1 ppb at ±10%, which is trace level work. The 20,000 ppm configuration covers a fumigated space or a tank. Normally, those are different instruments.

For benzene, the 9.8 eV cartridge reads up to 200 ppm benzene. ModRAE also supports compound specific workflows such as benzene measurement, with guided steps on screen and support for a separation tube cartridge. That gives a benzene reading, rather than a total VOC figure that happens to include it.

One honest point on the 11.7 eV lamp. It ionises compounds the others can’t, which is why it exists, but its rated life is 500 hours, against 10,000 for the rest, and it works from 0 to 60°C rather than -20°C. Treat it as a consumable, and budget for it as one.

Response time is 5 seconds to T90, and warm up is 5 seconds.

Two Modes for Two Different Jobs

Health Mode runs continuous monitoring with exposure metrics, so TWA and STEL build up across a shift. That’s the occupational hygiene job, where the question is what someone was exposed to over time.

Safety Mode is for targeted investigation. It offers survey detection with real time graphing and object measurement, for consistent, repeatable sampling, when the question is where the source is, rather than what the average was.

Having both as deliberate modes, with the interface changing to suit, is what makes one instrument credible across both jobs. A colour display with colour coded alerts and guided workflows helps keep operation consistent across users.

Built for the Conditions

The ModRAE is intrinsically safe to Ex ia IIC T4 Ga under IECEx and ATEX, which covers Zone 0. Its wireless approvals include RCM, so the radio side is compliant for Australia.

It’s rated IP66 and IP68 across the whole product, and operates from -20 to +60°C, at up to 95% humidity.

The pump is a serviceable diaphragm type, rated for more than 200 calendar weeks at 8 hours a day, five days a week, which is roughly four years. It’s replaceable, not a reason to retire the instrument. Flow is 300 mL per minute with automatic adjustment, a low flow warning below 210 and a blockage alarm below 150. It samples by pump, with or without a probe, and supports a separation tube cartridge and a water trap.

The maximum sampling distance is 45 metres, which covers pre entry sampling of a confined space from a safe position.

Alarms include a 95 dB buzzer at 30 cm, six LEDs (three each side), and two internal vibration motors. An accelerometer drives a man down alarm, and the configurable side button defaults to an SOS panic alarm.

Power and Data

The battery is a 5,700 mAh lithium polymer, giving more than 12 hours in the worst case configuration at room temperature, and more than 10 hours at -20°C. Worst case means continuous measurement, all sensors fitted including a photoionisation sensor and two high power sensors, the backlight on for outdoor use, and the wireless module running.

Charging takes under 5.5 hours between 10 and 30°C, and it suspends automatically outside 0 to 40°C, rather than damaging the cell. After two weeks in storage, about 80% of capacity remains.

Datalogging holds up to 180 days at a 60 second sampling interval, and the interval is adjustable from 1 second to 1 hour.

Connectivity, Fitted When You Need It

Bluetooth Low Energy and NFC are standard. Beyond that, a wireless module can be fitted in the field when you need it, so an upgrade doesn’t mean a new instrument.

The cellular module covers LTE across a wide range of bands, with a nano SIM, and adds GNSS positioning to about 10 metres, using GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou and QZSS. The LoRa module runs on the 868 and 915 MHz bands, with a line of sight range of 600 metres to an external antenna, and the same GNSS capability.

The instrument integrates with Honeywell Safety Suite 2.0, for centralised device management and monitoring data.

Where It’s Used

Industrial hygiene and worker exposure monitoring. Soil remediation and contamination assessment. Fumigation monitoring and re entry decisions. Confined space entry. Hazmat and emergency response in unknown environments. Leak detection and evaluation. Perimeter and area monitoring. Benzene measurement in refining and petrochemical work. Any site where detection requirements change often enough that a fixed instrument becomes a constraint.