ATEX/UKEx Product Certification

Conformity with the ATEX Directive and the UK Regulations is a mandatory requirement to enable products designed for use in potentially explosive atmospheres to be CE marked for access to the European Market and UKCA marked for UK market access.

Ensuring compliance with the ATEX Directive and UK Regulations is crucial for CE marking in the European Market and UKCA marking for UK market access. This certification verifies that products designed for potentially explosive atmospheres meet Essential Health & Safety Requirements through adherence to recognized harmonized/designated standards and verification by a Notified Body/Approved Body.

Technical Requirements

The technical requirements under the ATEX Directive and UK Regulations are identical. ATEX encompasses:

  • equipment and protective systems for potentially explosive atmospheres;
  • safety, controlling, and regulating devices crucial to equipment safety;
  • components integrated into equipment and protective systems.

Excluded from ATEX are medical devices, purely domestic equipment, and certain transport vehicles.

Equipment Specifications

Equipment for use in Potentially Explosive Atmospheres is specified by an Equipment ATEX Category or an Equipment Protection Level (EPL) which defines the level of safety and the zone in which it is suitable for use.

  • Zone 0: An area with continuously present explosive gas atmosphere.
  • Zone 1: Areas where explosive gas atmosphere can occur periodically.
  • Zone 2: Areas where explosive gas atmosphere is not likely to occur.
  • Zone 20: Areas with continuously present explosive dust atmosphere.
  • Zone 21: Areas where explosive dust atmosphere can occur periodically.
  • Zone 22: Areas where explosive dust atmosphere is not likely to occur.

Hazardous Areas Classification

Hazardous Areas are categorized into Zones and Safe Areas based on frequency and duration of explosive atmospheres. Further subdivisions include Gas or Dust Groups and Temperature Classes.

Technical Standards

Standards like IEC/EN 60079 and ISO/EN 80079 set protection criteria for gas and dust atmospheres.

Related Directives, Schemes, and Standards

The following standards define common protection concepts used to achieve appropriate gas group and temperature class levels:

  • IEC/EN 60079-0 General Requirements
  • IEC/EN 60079-1 Flameproof Ex d
  • IEC/EN 60079-2 Pressurisation Ex p
  • IEC/EN 60079-5 Quartz-filled Ex q
  • IEC/EN 60079-6 Oil-filled Ex o
  • IEC/EN 60079-7 Increased Safety Ex e
  • IEC/EN 60079-11 Intrinsic Safety Ex i
  • IEC/EN 60079-15 Non Incendive Ex n
  • IEC/EN 60079-18 Encapsulated Ex m
  • IEC/EN 60079-28 Optical safety Ex op
  • IEC/EN 60079-31 Dust protection Ex t
  • ISO/EN 80079-36 General Requirements (mechanical equipment)
  • ISO/EN 80079-37 constructional safety "c", control of ignition source "b", liquid immersion "k" Ex h  

Our Offering

DNV offers a full scope of evaluation, testing and certification services for both ATEX and IECEx approvals. In addition, DNV can supply pre-evaluation services to assist our customers with gap assessment or understanding of the technical and compliance requirements prior to undertaking and approval project.

We also offer a range of additional Hazardous Area services globally, including services specifically for assemblies of equipment and market access for e.g., USA, Canada and Brazil.

We support with a full scope of ATEX product certification designed for manufacturers who require third party evaluation, testing and certification of their products to demonstrate conformity to the ATEX Directive and UK Regulations.

Our IECEx Certification Body and ATEX (Notified Body nr. 2460) services are issued by DNV Product Assurance AS in Oslo, Norway. The UK Regulations services are issued by the DNV Approved Body nr. 8501, DNV Business Assurance UK Ltd.