This post is by Simon Barrowcliff, Safety Director at TRaC.Many different electronic systems need to operate in potentially explosive atmospheres. It's not just designers of specialist equipment: chemical plant control systems; equipment for petrol station forecourts and even products that operate where dust could cause an explosion all need to meet the EU ATEX Directive or international IECEx requirements.
The Directive uses the concept of three zones based on the period of time that a flammable atmosphere is present:
- Zone 0 means flammable gas is present continuously or for long period of time (often quantified as >1000hrs/yr);
- Zone 1 means it is likely to occur during normal operation (often quantified as >10 and <1000hrs/yr);
- and Zone 2 means it is not likely to occur in normal operation and, if it occurs, will exist for only a short time (often quantified as <10hrs/yr). Similar definitions for dust are referred to as Zones 20, 21 and 22.
These IEC changes will carry forward directly into the EN version when it is published. Specific clauses which are relevant for zone 0 or 1 have been removed from IEC60079-15 and placed in the corresponding zone 0/1 standards. This has the effect of making compliance for zone 2 potentially harder.
For example the technique of energy limitation (Ex nL) - where the maximum temperature and energy in a spark are limited - is no longer allowed in IEC60079-15, and equipment for all zones must use a potentially more restrictive intrinsic safety approach (Ex ic) using IEC60079-11.
Other changes are equally significant (depending on your product), and may still require changes to the product or how it is marked.
With the changes in this standard applying to the lowest categories - and therefore the largest number of ATEX products - engineers developing for hazardous or potentially hazardous environments should review existing products to make sure they meet the new requirements.
Previous Certification & Test entries:
* Certification & Test: How to make sure products comply with Noise at Work regulations
* Certification & Test: The impact of the Noise at Work Directive on your designs
* Certification & Test: How am I going to test that?
* Certification & Test: Electrical safety is still important!
* Certification & Test: Why bother with vibration testing?
* Certification & Test: Do I really need earthquake testing?
* Certification & Test: Differences between earthquake and vibration testing?
* Certification & Test: Safety - it's a complex business!
* Certification & Test: What's the point of a Notified Body?
* Certification & Test: The difference between Bluetooth and ZigBee testing?
* Certification & Test: Is above 1GHz the new Wild West?
* Certification & Test: Where have all the ZigBee products come from?
After obtaining his Bachelor's degree in engineering, Jonathan worked for a number of engineering companies prior to obtaining a teaching role at the University of Hull (England). In 1995 he joined KTL, an internationally renowned test laboratory which then became TRaC, as part of the Digital Group specialising in regulatory requirements for digital telecommunications equipment. During his time at the company he has, among other things, been appointed as Senior Protocol Engineer, and Approvals and Homologation Group Manager. Jonathan has actively participated in various technical working groups for the ZigBee Allianceâ and is currently the ZigBee Qualification Group (ZQG) Lead Technical Editor. 
Steve is Managing Director for the EMC and Safety business of TRaC and has been involved in EMC and product approvals for 19 years. In addition to the day to day running of the business, Steve is actively involved in EMC standardisation both in commercial and defence areas. In addition to being the UK Principal expert on EMC standardisation of Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) products he is also the convenor of CISPR/B/WG1 who has the responsibility of writing the International standard, CISPR 11. Steve wrote the CE marking annex to the UK's defence EMC standard as well as being co-convenor of CENELEC TC210/WG9, responsible for writing a guide on approval of military systems with commercial (CE Marking) requirements.
Joe Lomako MSc is the Business Development Manager of Telecoms and Radio at TRaC. He has been involved in the testing and compliance industry for over 15 years. Prior to joining TRaC Joe specialised in EMC, EMF Exposure and Radio compliance.
Appointed Test Manager in 2007, following three years as Projects Manager at TRaC, having previously worked as Head of Environmental Testing at another UKAS accredited test house. Over 20 years' experience of modelling, testing and measurement in the structural dynamics and seismic fields.
Chris has worked in electrical safety compliance for over 17 years. Having previously worked for BSI, he joined TRaC in 1996, progressing through a number of testing roles before becoming Safety Product Manager in 2006.
Appointed Commercial Manager - Analysis in November 2009. Prior to joining TRaC, he was the Business Development Manager at Onward Technologies, an engineering services company based in India. Graham has spent over 20 years working in the CAD / CAE domain selling both engineering services and engineering systems. 
Stephen Tait joined KTL, an internationally renowned test laboratory which then became TRaC, as part of the Telecom Group specialising in telecommunications product testing for worldwide approvals. Stephen is also responsible for the Telecoms commercial activities within the TRaC group.
Simon Barrowcliff is the Director of the ATEX Notified Body at TRaC. He set up TRaC's Lancashire-based, ATEX business in 2002 and has been heavily involved in EX testing and compliance since then. Simon also runs TRaC's certification schemes for electrical safety under the IECEE CB scheme. He is a chartered electrical engineer with more than 20 years experience of product compliance for electrical and mechanical equipment.
Appointed Managing Director in November 2007. Previously he was Test Facilities Manager for Flight Refuelling, part of the Cobham group, and spent his early career in the Environmental Engineering Department of British Aerospace at Stevenage.
Brendan was appointed Sales Director in August 2009. He joined the group in 2005 as Business Development Manager for environmental test services. Before joining TRaC he spent five years in Application Engineering and Technical Sales roles for automotive test equipment. He studied Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at Trinity College Dublin.
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