A new white paper from American Industrial Systems (AIS), ‘Hazardous areas and classified locations’ looks at safety protection requirements for electrical equipment deployed in hazardous areas. The white paper, authored by Santiago Consunji, is part a sales pitch for AIS’s explosion-proof solutions for upstream and downstream oil and gas operations, but also provides insights into plant safety and how to avoid fires and explosions.
Technical standards for explosion protection and safety are the subject of multiple regulations around the world. Equipment manufacturers are confronted with plethoric regulations and are duty-bound to align their equipment with the latest standards. The paper provides a table of the legislative basis and standards for explosion-proof electrical equipment in different legislations around the world.
In the EU, the EU committee for electro-technical standardization’s (CENELEC) EN 60079 and EN 61241 standards cover explosion protection. Other ATEX directives cover what equipment and work is allowed in environments with a potentially explosive atmosphere. In North America, electrical equipment deemed suitable for hazardous areas is certified by laboratories such as UL, MET, FM, CSA or Intertek. The American National Standard Institute (ANSI) coordinates US standards with international standards, so that American products can be used worldwide. AIS touch screens and panel PCs have application in drilling, on-site workstations, pipeline control and monitoring and refinery process operator control.
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