Home

IECEx System

  • Printer-friendly version

IECEx is an international system equivalent to the IECEE CB scheme, but especially for explosion protected (hazardous location) equipment. Nemko is an approved test laboratory, certification body and accepted CB within the IECEx Certified Service Facilities program. In addition, Nemko is able to authorize the IECEx Mark.


As with ATEX, IECEx is a conformity assessment scheme which provides assurance that equipment and systems in “Hazardous Locations” or “Explosive Atmospheres” or Ex Areas systems are manufactured and operated according to the highest International Standards of safety.

The objective of the IECEx System is to facilitate international trade in equipment and services for use in explosive atmospheres, while maintaining the required level of safety:

  • reduced testing and certification costs to manufacturer
  • reduced time to market
  • international confidence in the product assessment process
  • one international database listing
  • maintaining International Confidence in equipment and services covered by IECEx Certification

IECEx and ATEX product approval is based on harmonised standards, both schemes use the same protection concepts etc. but here are some differences between the schemes:

In order to legally sell and supply an ATEX Zone 0 or Zone 1 product;  a manufacturer requires both a Quality System approval certificate which covers the product standards used and a product conformity certificate for the product itself (EC-type examination certificate) (exceptions apply).

ATEX Category 3 can be self-certified or may be in the form of a third party certificate, it does not require any quality system assessment. For IECEx this is not the case. For all zones under the IECEx scheme we must obtain two approval certificates from a Notified Body in order to legally sell and supply: Quality System approval certificate which covers the standards used (QAR: Quality Assurance Report)
Certificate for the actual product itself (CoC Certificate of Conformity).

Benefits of IECEx

ATEX is mandatory in the EU only but is recognised as a standard or quality around the world. IECEx will eventually be global access for Ex products and will hopefully eradicate the need for country deviations worldwide. IECEx is currently accepted in Europe and many other countries including (but not limited to) Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, USA...

IECEx certificates when issued are automatically uploaded to the IECEx website www.iecex.com, manufacturers and end users can do a simple search on the website to find products and then instantly access the associated certification documents.

Common Problems

Even though ATEX and IECEx use harmonised standards when certifying an assembly of parts for ATEX all individual parts must be ATEX approved and for IECEx all individual parts must be previously IECEx approved. One does not substitute for the other.
As the IECEx scheme is relatively ‘new’, it can be sometimes difficult to source products you need with IECEx approval. This can be frustrating, but more and more manufacturers are choosing IECEx everyday.
 

Scope
IEC 60079-0 Part 0: General requirements
IEC 60079-1 Part 1: Flameproof enclosures 'd'
IEC 60079-2 Part 2: Pressurized enclosures 'p'
IEC 60079-5 Part 5: Powder filling 'q'
IEC 60079-6 Part 6: Oil-immersion 'o'
IEC 60079-7 Part 7: Increased safety 'e'
IEC 60079-11 Part 11: Intrinsic safety 'i'
IEC 60079-15 Part 15: Construction, test and marking of type of protection 'n' electrical apparatus
IEC 60079-18 Part 18: Part 18: Equipment protection by encapsulation "m"
IEC 60079-25 Part 25: Intrinsically safe systems
IEC 60079-26 Part 26: Construction, test and marking of Group II Zone 0 electrical apparatus
IEC 60079-27 Part 27: Fieldbus intrinsically safe concept (FISCO) and Fieldbus non-incendive concept (FNICO)
IEC 60079-31 Part 31: Equipment dust ignition protection by enclosure 't'
IEC 61241-0 Part 0: General requirements
IEC 61241-1 Part 1: Protection by enclosures 'tD'
IEC 61241-4 Part 4: Type of protection 'pD'
IEC 61241-11 Part 11: Protection by intrinsic safety 'iD'
IEC 61241-18 Part 18: Protection by encapsulation “mD” electrical apparatus
IEC 62013-1 Caplights for use in mines susceptible to firedamp - Part 1: General requirements - Construction and testing in relation to the risk of explosion
IEC 62086-1 Electrical apparatus for explosive gas atmospheres –
Electrical resistance trace heating – Part 1: General and testing requirements

Contact Nemko

Contact Nemko

Please phone or send us your request in the form below, and we will contact you as soon as possible. Let us know your purpose and we will find the right person to call you back.