Intrinsically safe installations lose that status if you don’t separate intrinsically safe conductors from nonintrinsically safe conductors [504.30(A)]. This concept of conductor separation is the major thrust of Art. 504. About half of the Article consists of the details of achieving this separation. Caution: Don’t separate the equipment grounding (bonding) conductors from those of nonintrinsically safe systems, because that would cause a difference of potential.