- Home
- Companies
- Viscotherm AG
- Services
- Explosion Protection for Electrical ...
Explosion Protection for Electrical Equipment
Potentially Explosive Atmospheres exist where there is a risk of explosion due to mixtures of gas/air, vapour/air, dust/air or other flammable combinations. In such areas there is a necessity to eliminate sources of ignition such as sparks, hot surfaces or static electricity which may ignite these mixtures. Where electrical equipment has to be used in these areas it must be so designed and constructed as to not create sources of ignition capable of igniting these mixtures. Before electrical equipment can be used in a potentially explosive atmosphere a representative sample has to be fully tested and certified by an independent authority such as BASEEFA in the U.K. or UL in the U.S.A.
Starting 7/1/2003 all devices and protection systems which are to be installed into explosionproof areas within the European Union, must fulfill ATEX95 guideline (94/9/EG). For the future there are efforts underway to expand these guideline for outside of the EU.
One of the changes through ATEX are the inclusion of not-electric components. Until then, non-electric components did not count as a "supervision needy units". For the fulfillment of the guideline the standards EN-13463 are available.
For example, the following must be prevented:
- hot areas (e.g.. through acceleration, or braking, through seized/hot-running bearings or heated surfaces)
- electric sparks (e.g. through electrostatic discharge)
- other sparks
These ignition sources are avoided through modifications in contruction and are proved by appropriate tests.