Why IECEx compliance is the new international standard indication for safe use of electronics in explosive work areas.

Many industries require the operation of electronic machinery in hazardous environments. Mines, oil rigs, processing facilities and production plants sometimes have high concentrations of vapours or extremely fine dust that are potentially explosive. Companies continually look for ways to increase plant safety, and a growing area of focus is ensuring that equipment meets the required safety standards for equipment being used in these environments.

Proposed and championed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), IECEx certifies that an instrument, control or other device is safe to be used in hazardous environments anywhere in the world without significant modification. The certification recognizes common acceptable levels of safety, enabling products to be freely sold in all major markets. IECEx is becoming the de facto standard for international safe certification of products.

The IEC is a global organisation that helps develop internationally recognised standards and manages conformity assessment systems for electric and electronic products, systems and services. IEC publications serve as a basis for national standardisation and as references when drafting international tenders and contracts.

An alternative hazardous area operation certification is the European Union-based ATEX system which was introduced in 2003. ATEX is a mandatory legal directive relying on various conformity assessmentsand designed to remove trade barriers within Europe.

IEC test reports provide detail not included within an ATEX certificate and can be locally ratified to overcome any regulatory compliance issues in a destination market virtually anywhere in the world.

From the time it was proposed, IECEx was to be an ISO/IEC Type 5Certification Scheme that combines all aspects of design evaluation and production control before issuing a certificate. All IECEx certifications are stored in a publicly accessible database that can be searched by a purchaser to check the status of the certificate—current, suspended or withdrawn—in real-time.

Unlike ATEX, IECEx is completely transparent giving purchasers and users access to detail that would not be easy to obtain under the ATE compliance system. The universal goal for IECEx is to be “one certificate acceptable everywhere” supported by absolute and traceable compliance to the nominated standards.

IECEx certification complements ATEX and choosing equipment that complies with both standards has advantages, depending on where in the world the equipment is going to be used.

An illustration of the worldwide acceptance of IECEx is the adoption of the scheme by the Underwriters Laboratories of American (UL). UL has gained accreditation under the IECEx scheme, and has been issuing Assessment and Test Reports (ATRs) since 2005.

The ATRs produced under IECEx will be accepted by other national certification bodies in countries participating in the scheme without the need for additional testing. One product certification will be recognized in national jurisdictions of 31 signatory countries, including Australia, Canada, China, the member states of the EU, Russia and the USA.

Browse our range of Safety & Hazardous Area Equipment compliant to IECEx standards by clicking here.