International Reference Guide to Hazardous Areas
In order to provide a clearer understanding of the different requirements for hazardous area equipment, Victor Lighting have compiles an International Guide to help you. This document is available to download and is also re-printed in the current Hazardous Area product guide.There are different standards used for hazardous areas and electrical equipment designed for use in those environments, depending upon where in the world they are to be used. In Europe EN standards are used to check compliance with the ATEX directive. In the USA the standard is NEC (National Electric Code), with a variant called CEC (Canadian Electric Code) used in Canada. In addition some countries have their own approval standards (e.g. GOST for Russia and the former Soviet States, GB for China and TISI for Thailand), however these are often based on EN standards. To simplify matters an attempt is being made to harmonise all major standards for use in the IEC Ex scheme. The aim of the IEC Ex Scheme is to facilitate international trade in electrical equipment intended for use in explosive atmospheres (Ex equipment) by eliminating the need for multiple national certification while preserving an appropriate level of safety. Whilst the standards used in Europe and America are intended to achieve the safe installation and operation of electrical equipment in hazardous areas, they are different in principles, classification and approach. The purpose of the following guide is to detail some of the differences in the two approaches and to use a step-by-step process to select the correct type of luminaire or other electrical, equipment for use in a hazardous area. THE CLASSIFICATION OF HAZARDOUS AREAS INTO ZONES IS GIVEN FOR GAS MIXTURES, IN IEC OR EN 60079-10 AND SELECTION IN IEC OR EN 60079-14. FOR COMBUSTIBLE DUST HAZARDS THE EUROPEAN STANDARDS ARE EN 61241-10 AND EN 61241-14. THE INFORMATION FOLLOWING GUIDE IS GIVEN AS BACKGROUND TO THE USE OF THE ABOVE STANDARDS. THE APPLICATION OF THE STANDARDS AND ANY LOCAL REGULATION IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER.
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