Electrical Equipment in Hazardous Areas
A hazardous area is defined as a place where concentrations of flammable gases, vapours, or dusts occur.
IRDI System’s products, including the protocol converter with safety barrier and nozzle receiver, are designed and certified to operate in hazardous areas, where hydrogen gas is present under normal conditions. See Table 1.1 for a list of flammable gases categorized into groups.
Group | Representative Gases |
| I | All Underground Coal Mining. Firedamp (methane) |
| IIA | Industrial methane, propane, petrol and the majority of industrial |
| IIB | Ethylene, coke oven gas and other industrial gases |
| IIC | Hydrogen, acetylene, carbon disulphide |
Table 1.1 Flammable Gas Groups
Temperature classification of electrical equipment dictates that any part of the equipment that may be exposed to hazardous atmosphere cannot exceed 80% of the auto-ignition temperature of the gas or vapour in the area. These temperature groups are shown in Table 1.2.
| Group | Temperature C° |
| T1 | 450 |
| T2 | 300 |
| T3 | 200 |
| T4 | 135 |
| T5 | 100 |
| T6 | 85 |
Table 1.2 Temperature Classification Groups
Certification in the European Union
In the EU, hazardous locations are categorized by zones. For example, a Zone 1 area is defined by the presence of vapour of gas for long periods of time under normal operating conditions. This translates to 10-1000hours per year or 0.1-10% of the time. Refer to Table 2.1 for a description of the zones.
| Zone | Presence of potentially explosive gas, vapour, or mist |
| Safe area | An area where there is low risk of explosion. For example, the presence of aerosols or paint cleaner in an office is more of a fire risk than an explosion risk. |
| Zone 2 | Potentially explosive gas, vapour or mist is only present under abnormal conditions, or under 10hours/year or 0.01% of the time. |
| Zone 1 | Potentially explosive gas, vapour or mist is present for long periods of time under normal operating conditions. Generally this is defined as 10-1000hours/year or 0.1-10% of the time. |
| Zone 0 | Potentially explosive gas, vapour or mist is present all the time. Generally, this is defined as 1000hours/year or >10% of the time. |
Table 2.1 Zones Defined By Presence of Explosive Gases
In the EU, there are different protection techniques according to the hazardous zones. For example, if the electronic equipment operates in Zone 0, Ex ia protection is required. See Table 2.2 below for the classification of protection techniques.
| Ex | Zone | |
| Ex d | Flameproof (explosion proof) enclosure – all electrical circuits are enclosed in a house strong enough to contain any explosion or fire that may take place inside. | 1, 2 |
| Ex ia | Intrinsically safe – the electrical energy available in circuits and equipment is limited to a level too low to ignite mixtures in a hazardous area. | 0, 1, 2 |
| Ex ib | Intrinsically safe – the electrical energy available in circuits and equipment is limited to a level too low to ignite mixtures in a hazardous area. | 1, 2 |
Table 2.2 Classification of Protection Techniques According to Hazardous Zones
The Equipment Protection Level (EPL) is specified for several types of protection. This is linked to the equipment’s use in the zone it operates in and the hazardous material present. Table 2.3 shows the classifications that are relevant to gases.
| Group | Ex risk | Zone | EPL | Minimum type of protection |
| II (gas) | Explosive atmosphere > 1000h/year | 0 | Ga | ia, ma |
| II (gas) | Explosive atmosphere between 10 – 1000h/year | 1 | Gb | ib, mb, px, py, , e, o, q, s |
| II (gas) | Explosive atmosphere between 1 – 10h/year | 2 | Gc | n, ic, pz |
Table 2.3 Equipment Protection Level for Zones With Hazardous Gases
Certification in North America
In North America, hazardous locations are categorized by Classes and Divisions, or Zones (similar to EU zones). Refer to Table 3.1 & Table 3.2 for a description of these Classes and Divisions. When zones are used in North America, classification is categorized according to EU zone definitions.
| Class | Hazardous material in surrounding atmosphere |
| Class I | Hazardous because flammable gasses or vapours are present in the air in quantities sufficient to produce explosive or ignitable mixtures |
| Class II | Hazardous because combustible or conductive dusts are present |
| Class III | Hazardous because ignitable fibres or flying’s are present, but not likely to be in suspension in sufficient quantities to produce ignitable mixtures. |
Table 3.1 Classes of Hazardous Atmospheres
| Division | Presence of Hazardous Material |
| Division 1 | The substance referred to by class is present during normal conditions |
| Division 2 | The substance referred to by class is present only in abnormal conditions |
Table 3.2 Divisions of Hazardous Atmospheres
IRDI Product Certification
IRDI nozzle receiver and protocol converter are certified for the European Union (ATEX) and North America (NEC), Japan (TIIS), Korea (KTL) and China (CCC). Below are the certifications of each of our products.
- Nozzle Receiver:
- ATEX – Ex ib IIC T4 Gb
- NEC – Class 1 Zone 1 Ex ib IIC T4 Gb
- NEC-Class 1 Div 2 IIC T4
- TIIS- Ex ib IIC T4 Gb
- KTL-Ex ib IIC T4 Gb
- CCC-Ex ib IIC T4 Gb
- Protocol Converter:
- ATEX – [Ex ib] IIC Gb
- NEC – [Ex ib] IIC T4 Gb
- TIIS – [Ex ib] IIC
- KTL-[EX ib] IIC
- CCC-[Ex ib Gb] IIC
- Test signal generator/IR Transmitter-Class 1 Div 2 Group ABCD T4; Class I, Zone 2 Group IIC T4
- Heavy Duty Vehicle products-No intrinsic safety certification
Let’s use the ATEX-certified IRDI protocol converter to demonstrate the meaning of the certification terms. [Ex ib] IIC Gb. The Ex denotes explosion protection. ib is the protection method type, which in this case is through intrinsic safety. IIC denotes the gas groups which in this case is Hydrogen. Gb is the equipment protection level which in this case allows the product to operate in Zone 1 or Zone 2. Brackets around [Ex ib] indicate that “ib” is specifically the type of protection method being applied to this Ex-marking.
Note that the ATEX-certified IRDI nozzle receiver has a temperature group classification. The IRDI nozzle receiver is certified as temperature group T4, which means the nozzle receiver will not reach temperatures beyond 135C° during operation. Its ambient operation temperature is from -40 to 85 C°.