The standard IEC 60079 covers the rules and measures required to use electronic equipment in areas with risk of explosion due to gas and/or dust. A certification according to the standard is required to use electronic equipment, such as the EXOR HMI products, in plants where the possible presence of explosive gas or dust is a major risk for workers and for the plant itself. The standard specifies how the product must be designed and built in order to ensure it cannot be the cause of the ignition causing an explosion.
Examples of the industries where the risk of explosion is common are:
- Oil & Gas
- Chemical
A certification from IEC is accepted worldwide, differently from ATEX that is valid only in the European Union. This makes the new IECEx certificate a great competitive advantage for the EXOR products.
The IECEx certificate, according to the standard IEC 60079, identifies the products that are covered by the certification: the IECEx certificate for EXOR products has already been publishes in the IEC database of certified equipment.
For the implementation of the IECEx certification we have chosen to work with UL. Please note that this has nothing to do with UL approvals such as Class I div 2. We have only appointed UL as a qualified organization with IEC recognition.
The marking you will find on products and accessories is:
- Ex nA IIC T5 Gc
- Ex tc IIIC T95°C Dc
The first part refers to gas while the second refers to dust.
This classification classifies the EXOR products for use in zones 2/22.
Zones 2/22 are those where ignitable concentrations of mixture are not likely to occur in normal operation and if they do exist, they do so only for a short time.
The parts of the standard relevant for the EXOR products are:
IEC 60079-0 : 2011
Explosive atmospheres - Part 0: General requirements
IEC 60079-15 : 2010
Explosive atmospheres - Part 15: Equipment protection by type of protection "n"
IEC 60079-31 : 2013
Explosive atmospheres-Part 31:Equipment dust ignition protection by enclosure "t"
The EXOR products covered by the IECEx certificate are:
- eX705
- eX707
- eX710
- eX715
- eX721
