Many industries are involved in materials which can give rise to potentially explosive atmospheres by the presence of flammable mixtures if gases and/ or dusts in air. These include mining, chemical plants, oil refineries, gas terminals, offshore installations, sugar, grain and other foodstuff processing and storage facilities, metal finishing works etc. All these industries use electrical energy.
The safe use of electrical energy in the hazardous locations of these industries requires tried and tested methods of explosion protection to be implemented. For this reason, the authorities involved in compiling standards, and in the testing and certification of equipment have an important role.
Standards have evolved as a result of careful research, often prompted by accidents, e.g.
- Senghennydd (Wales) colliery disaster in 1913 – 439 miners died.
- Flixborough (England) explosion – 28 dead
- Piper Alpha in the North Sea, in which 167 men lost their lives. Etc.
Construction of equipment to relevant standards coupled with testing by an independent expert test authority will ensure that the equipment is suitable for its intended purpose.
Explosion protected equipment is constructed in accordance with standards, but its’ integrity will only be preserved if it is properly selected, installed and maintained in accordance with the manufacturers’ recommendations and recognised codes of practice.
In the European Community (European Union, EU), the organisation which publishes harmonised standards for its member nations is the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC).
With the ultimate aim of global harmonisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) publishes standards for this purpose.
For explosion protected equipment, IEC and European (EN) standards are now technically identical, published in the UK as BS EN60079
