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Documentation required for compliance with legislation

UK documentation requires a technical file that includes each equipment piece. This must consist of; a UK declaration of conformity(s), the installation/product menu, the UK Type Certificate(s) and any descriptive system documents.

 

      • The UK declaration of conformity is a contract between the manufacturer and customer stating that the product complies with all the relevant UK requirements. The declaration is a mandatory requirement as it confirms that the company supplying has taken responsibility for the goods’ compliance, which would leave the site with full responsibility.
      • The UK declaration of conformity should include the following; a Product model/type/batch/serial number, the name and address of the manufacturer, a description of the object that conforms with the relevant standards (may include an image of the object), reference to the applicable standards and the approved UK certifying body which issued the certificate.
      • Non-compliance with the UK declaration of conformity can lead to the imposition of heavy fines.
      • As of January 2021, a UK Type Certificate is now required for any category 1 or 2 equipment supplied for use in the UK. It is a supporting document for the declaration of conformity. Usually, a Type certificate will consist of; The notified body name/abbreviation, the number for the year of issue, ‘Atex’, and the certificate number. Due to Brexit, all UK certification companies lost their Notified Bodies status, so previously issued certificates can no longer be used. All old UK certified bodies should have transferred their type certificate.
      • A descriptive system document (DSD) is a mandatory document which provides a record of compliance with each intrinsic safety loop/circuit. All intrinsically safe systems require that every aspect of the intrinsic safety loops be put on record and must contain the following information; gas groups, equipment protection level (EPL) & temperature rating, cable requirements & parameters, earth & bonding points, justification for simple apparatus, unique ID number for the DSD, signed and dated by system design. It is the responsibility of the site to provide these documents.

Current legislation regarding ATEX

Atex is an EU legal framework for using equipment within a hazardous area, not a product certification. Atex is an abbreviation from the French title of the original Atex directive Appareils destines a etre untilises en Atmospheres Explosives. The original directive was dated 23rd March 1994 and became mandatory in July 2003. Atex is the name commonly given to the two European Directives for controlling explosive atmospheres:

      • The Directive 2014/34/EU on the approximation of the laws of Member States concerning equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres. The Directive defines the requirements for any equipment to be used in potentially explosive atmospheres and is implemented by the ‘Equipment and Protective Systems Intended for Use in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 2016’. It aims to allow the free trade of ‘Atex’ equipment and protective systems within the EU by removing the need for separate testing and documentation for each member state. However, in Great Britain, the Directive requirements were implemented through BIS equipment and Protective Systems Intended for Use in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 1996. This requires manufacturers/suppliers of ‘Atex’ equipment to ensure that their products meet essential health and safety requirements and undergo appropriate conformity procedures, usually involving testing and certification by a notified body.
      • Directive 99/92/EC on minimum requirements for improving health and safety protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres. This requires classifying areas where explosive atmospheres may occur, selecting equipment and protective systems, identifying areas where explosive atmospheres may occur, providing anti-static clothing and confirming overall explosion safety. This directive requires employers to eliminate or control the risks from dangerous substances. Employers must classify areas where hazardous atmospheres may occur into zones. Each zone is classified based on its size, location, and the likelihood of an explosive atmosphere.
      • The Atex Directive Applies to:
      • Equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive areas
      • Safety devices, controlling devices and regulating devices intended for use outside potentially explosive atmospheres but required for or contributing to the safe functioning of equipment and protective systems with respect to the risks of explosion;
      • Components intended to be incorporated into equipment and protective systems

Excluded from Atex Directive (because of other directives that apply):

      • Medical devices which are intended for use in a medical environment;
      • Equipment and protective systems where the explosion hazards result exclusively from the presence of explosive substances or unstable chemical substances;
      • Equipment intended for use in domestic and non-commercial environments where potentially explosive atmospheres may only rarely be created, solely as a result of the accidental leakage of fuel gas;
      • Personal protective equipment covered by Council Directive 89/686/EEC;
      • Seagoing vessels and mobile offshore units together with equipment on board such vessels or units;
      • Means of transport, i.e. vehicles and their trailers intended solely for transporting passengers by air or by road, rail or water networks, as well as means of transport in so far as such means are designed for transporting goods by air, by public road or rail networks or by water. Vehicles intended for use in a potentially explosive atmosphere shall not be excluded from the scope of this Directive;

Definitions of key terms (which can be found in The Equipment and Protective Systems Intended for Use in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres Regulations 1996):

      • “equipment” means machines, apparatus, fixed or mobile devices, control components and instrumentation thereof and detection or prevention systems which, separately or jointly, are intended for the generation, transfer, storage, measurement, control and conversion of energy or the processing of material and which are capable of causing an explosion through their own potential sources of ignition;
      • “protective systems” means design units which are intended to halt incipient explosions immediately and/or to limit the effective range of explosive flames and explosion pressures; protective systems may be integrated into equipment or separately placed on the market for use as autonomous systems;
      • “devices” means safety devices, controlling devices and regulating devices intended for use outside potentially explosive atmospheres but required for or contributing to the safe functioning of equipment and protective systems with respect to the risks of explosion.
      • “component” means any item essential to the safe functioning of equipment and protective systems but with no autonomous function;
      • “intended use” means the use of equipment, protective systems, and devices in accordance with the equipment group and category and with all the information supplied by the manufacturer which is required for the safe functioning of equipment, protective systems and devices;
      • “explosive atmosphere” means the mixture with air, under atmospheric conditions, of flammable substances in the form of gases, vapours, mists or dusts in which, after ignition occurred, combustion spreads to the entire unburned mixture; and
      • “potentially explosive atmosphere” means an atmosphere which could become explosive due to local and operational conditions.

Sets out conformity assessment procedures in Section 10, (subsections 1-6).

More key definitions are in Directive 2014/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the council of 26 February 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres:

      • ‘components’ means any item essential to the safe functioning of equipment and protective systems but with no autonomous function
      • ‘equipment-group I’ means equipment intended for use in underground parts of mines, and in those parts of surface installations of such mines, liable to be endangered by firedamp and/or combustible dust, comprising equipment categories M 1 & M 2
      • ‘equipment group II’ means equipment intended for use in other places liable to be endangered by explosive atmospheres, comprising equipment categories 1, 2 and 3
      • ‘equipment category’ means the classification of equipment within each equipment-group, specified in Annex 1, determining the requisite level of protection to be ensured
      • ‘intended use’ means the use of a product prescribed by the manufacturer by assigning the equipment to a particular equipment-group and category or by providing all the information which is required for the safe functioning of a protective system, device or component
      • ‘manufacturer’ means any natural or legal person who manufactures a product or has a product designed or manufactured, and markets that product under his name or trade mark or uses it for his own purposes
      • ‘authorised representative’ means any natural or legal person established within the Union who has received a written mandate from a manufacturer to act on his behalf in relation to a specified task
      • ‘importer’ means any natural or legal person established within the Union who places a product from a third country on the Union market
      • ‘distributor’ means any natural or legal person in the supply chain, other than the manufacturer or the importer, who makes the product available on the market
      • ‘technical specification’ means a document that prescribes technical requirements to be fulfilled by a product
      • ‘conformity assessment’ means the process demonstrating whether the essential health and safety requirements of this Directive relating to a product have been fulfilled
      • ‘conformity assessment body’ means a body that performs conformity assessment activities including calibration, testing, certification and inspection
      • ‘CE marking’ means a marking by which the manufacturer indicates that the product is in conformity with the applicable requirements set out in Union harmonisation legislation providing for its affixing

Annex 2 – Essential health and safety requirements relating to the design and construction of equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres

      • Marking
      • Name, registered trade name or registered trade mark, and address of the manufacturer
      • CE marking
      • Designation of series or type
      • Batch/serial number
      • Year of construction
      • The specific marking of explosion protection followed by the symbol of the equipment-group and category
      • For equipment-group II, the letter G’’ (gases, vapours or mists)

And/or

      • The letter ‘D’ (dust)
      • Instructions
      • A recapitulation of the information with which the equipment or protective system is marked, except for the batch or serial number together with any appropriate additional information to facilitate maintenance
      • Instructions for safe:
      • Putting into service
      • Use
      • Assembling and dismantling
      • Maintenance
      • Installation
      • Adjustment
      • An indication of the danger areas in front of pressure-relief devices
      • Training instructions
      • Details which allow a decision to be taken beyond

Module EC-Type Examination: Schedule 6 (Annex III of the ATEX Directive)

      • Describes the part of the procedure by which a notified body ascertains and attests that a specimen representative of the production envisaged meets the relevant applicable provisions of the directive.
      • The application shall be lodged by the manufacturer or his authorised representative established within the Community with a notified body of his choice, and shall include:
      • The name and address of the manufacturer and, if the application is lodged by the authorised representative, his name and address in addition;
      • A written declaration that the same application has not been lodged with any other notified body
      • The technical documentation, which shall include:
      • A general type-description
      • Design and manufacturing drawings and layouts of components, sub-assemblies, circuits, etc
      • Descriptions and explanations necessary for the understanding of said drawings and layouts and the operations of the product
      • A list of the standards referred to in Article 5, applied in full or in part, and descriptions of the solutions adopted to meet the essential requirements of the directive where the standards referred to in Article 5 have not been applied
      • Results of design calculations made, examinations carried out, etc
      • Test reports
      • Meanwhile it is the role of the notified body to (Subsection 4):
      • Examine the technical documentation, verify that the type has been manufactured in conformity with the technical documentation and identify the elements which have been designed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the standards referred to in Article 5, as well as the components which have been designed without applying the relevant provisions of those standards;
      • Perform or have performed the appropriate examinations and necessary tests to check whether the solutions adopted by the manufacturer meet the essential requirements of the Directive where the standards referred to in Article 5 have not been applied;
      • Perform or have performed the appropriate examinations and necessary tests to check whether these have actually been applied, where the manufacturer has chosen to apply the relevant settings;
      • Agree with the applicant the location where the examinations and necessary tests shall be carried out