The Importance of Safety in Hazardous Areas: Certifications by KEMA Labs

International standards require electrical and non-electrical equipment installed in hazardous areas to prove that it can withstand particular external events such as explosions, spark ignition, extreme heat and high impacts.

Places like oil refineries, chemical plants and sewerage treatment plants are areas where hazardous gas vapors may be present, but several companies do not realize dust and other factors can also create hazardous areas.

Indeed, in some cases the hazardous atmosphere is present all the time, or for long periods, but under other circumstances, the atmosphere is normally non-hazardous, yet a dangerous concentration can be reasonably foreseen, such as operator error or equipment failure.

In this respect, KEMA Labs (the CESI Testing, Inspection and Certification Division) operates in Europe as a notification body for the certification of equipment that is used in potentially explosive atmospheres, according to ATEX directive 94/9/CE and/or IECEx certification .