Hazardous Areas
ATEX (ATmosphere EXplosive)
Designing, maintaining and operating of electrical equipment in Hazardous Areas, requires specialized knowledge which ensures that the installation or the equipment itself can't be a source of ignition.
Various international standards and practices exist in order to prevent an explosion to occur.
In Europe the ATEX directives 94/9/EC and 1999/92/EC are the basis for the applicable legislations in each of the member states. ATEX deals primarily with the safety of workers risk due to a potentially explosive atmosphere.
Fortunately it is not often that explosion accidents occur, but it happens and when it happens, the consequences can be enormous in terms of lost lives and damage to assets.
Every company, processing or handling of products, which might create a potential explosion risk must therefore carry out a risk assessment and prepare a document that prove that the explosion risk is as low as required by the authorities. In Europe it is a legal requirement that an explosion protection document is prepared.
In order to be able to manage the risk in areas with a potential explosive atmosphere, the different explosive zones must be defined. The likelihood of the presence of an explosive atmosphere is the basis for the definition of the zones. This is called classification of the Hazardous areas.
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Hazardous areas for explosive gas is divided into zone 0, zone 1 and zone 2. Hazardous areas due to dust are corresponding divided into zone 20, zone 21 and zone 22. The figure illustrates the zones around a gasoline tank with pump. |
The services provided by RGE
RGE offer to prepare the necessary ATEX documentation for companies. Both when it is a matter of explosive gases and explosive dusts.
RGE have special competence with classification of hazardous areas and the required precautions there must be taken in order to reduce the risk to accepted level.
• We prepare procedures and guidelines for type of equipment to be installed, the installation method and methods.
• We prepare all the related documents including calculating the extent of the zones. Drawings are prepared as plan drawings with details of the vertical extend of the hazardous areas. The drawing is prepared in AutoCad 2D format; alternatively we can produce 3D drawings.
RGE use the following standards:
EN 60079-10 for explosive gas and
EN 60241-10 for explosive dust. Within oil and gas industry,
IP 15 from the Energy Institute in London as a basis for the hazardous areas classification.
