Is There an Inspection Standard for Hazardous (classified areas) 2

[bobbyyan]

Hi all,

Just a quick question. I am aware of the Europeans having the IEC 60079:17 standard which is titled Explosive atmospheres - Electrical installations inspection and maintenance. In this standard it shows a few tables with the inspection criteria that the inspector is supposed to check to verify that the equipment is installed correctly to the applicable standards for flameproof, non-incendive, intrinsic safety etc. Heres a picture of a google search for the table:

My question, is there a standard with a similar table listing the inspection criteria for equipment for use in the US?

Thanks all in advance, really appreciate your help. Sorry if this is an obvious question.

Regards

Bobby

 

[DRWeig]

Try UL 60079-17 You'll find that they are quite harmonized.

Be careful out there!

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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[bobbyyan]

I thought as much. I kept going over searches for UL,CSA,FM,BSEN,IEC,NFPA,API,NEC. All of which I could find only the 60079 series which has part 17 dealing with inspection of electrical equipment for classified locations. Did the US have a standard of inspection that deals with say, equipment which was marked as CL I Div 2 Groups BCD?

The reason I ask is that the Europeans (much like the US) didn't start with Ex certification. Back in the 40s it was FLP standards, so a certificate for a light fitting for example built back then had an FLP certificate number rather than what we're used to seeing now with Baseefa and Sira and PTB etc. Heres an example of an FLP certificate:

With the FLP certification in place, there wasn't a standard table that listed the criteria on which a safety inspector could go back to for FLP equipment. I would have thought back then, the policing of the standards was much less enforced. Nowadays though, this equipment would be treated as Exd and the checks incorporating Exd equipment would be carried out. Today we still come across a lot of FLP and CL I DIV 1&2 equipment and I was interested in where the inspection, maintenance standards first came in, was it just with the introduction of 60079 or earlier?

Thanks again for your time. It's a topic I'm interested in and I am always grateful to learn more about.

Regards

Bobby

 

[DRWeig]

I think there were both UL and FM standards for inspection -- but I don't have any records available on the older stuff. You've probably already found this if you're good with Google:

http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/offerings/services/hazardouslocations/ref/standards/

You can also take a stab at e-mailing cec.us@us.ul.com

More contact info is here:

http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/aboutul/locations/

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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[bobbyyan]

Yes I had a very thorough read of the UL website, it was frustrating to see no UL or FM inspection standard listed.

Thanks again, I'll follow up on that email right now and let everyone know the outcome.

Regards

Bobby

 

[bobbyyan]

Hello. As promised, I've been in talks with UL in regards to finding an inspection standard for equipment certified to e.g. CL I DIV 1&2 equipment. Here's how the emails went:
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
<Paul> Hello – I received your inquiry about UL Listed HazLoc equipment. How can I help?

<Me> Hi Paul,
It was just a quick question.

I'm aware that the european standards for inspection of electrical equipment in hazardous areas is IEC60079-17. This covers equipment certified to Ex d or Exe or Ex ia etc. In the standard there is a table of criteria that the electrical Inspector uses to asssess whether the equipment he is looking at is correctly installed and is suitable for the hazardous area in which its installed in.

I was wondering for north american equipment, for example that is certified class I div 2 groups ABCD, is there an inspection table that the inspector would use to assess whether the equipment is suitable and correctly installed?

I am aware that there is the AEx certification such as AEx d or AEx e etc. But the question is specifically for equipment certified to the class I div1-2 or class II div 1-2 certification standards.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

<Paul> Bobby -- Regarding a US Division inspection document equivalent to IEC 60079-17, there is not such a specific directly equivalent document. The National Electrical Code (NEC) requires areas to be documented (that typically provides the area classification information). Once the area is classified, equipment and wiring requirements are then also covered in the NEC.

While it is not always easy for an individual that may have limited application experience to handle such inspections, the NEC is as clear as most any additional instructions would be. However, equipment installation instructions from manufacturers also provide helpful information. NEC 110.3(B) obviously requires compliance with those instructions.

In many cases, it may be difficult for an inspector to get the classification documentation when working on a small project. The designer or the installer should typically be able to provide that information, as it can be very useful.

If I can help with anything else, just let me know.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That answers that I guess. Thanks again for the help Goober Dave.

Regards

Bobby

 

[DRWeig]

Thank you for following up, bobbyyan. That's good info!

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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[stookeyfpe]

Ditto on good information.