Guest Blog By Terry McDonald at Thorne & Derrick, RVT's Partner for ATEX Fans
1st July 2021When working in industrial confined spaces the provision of air quality is important to personal health – now locate that confined space into an explosive atmosphere and safe ventilation becomes critical to life.
The HSE explain that “a number of people are killed or seriously injured in confined spaces each year in the UK. This happens in a wide range of industries, from those involving complex plant to simple storage vessels. Those killed include people working in the confined space and those who try to rescue them without proper training and equipment.” (HSE, INDG258)
The set of challenges (ATEX Product Certification) and risk of hazards (Explosive Atmospheres) present considerable ventilation safety concerns to the hazardous area industries and confined space workers. The risk is real. As such, Terry McDonald, Expert in Equipment for Explosive Atmosphere at Thorne & Derrick, has written the below blog to help us untangle ATEX and warn us about potentially fatal fans.
Untangling ATEX
The atmospheric presence of flammable gases or combustible dusts – in tanks, silos, vaults, sewers, shafts, tunnels or basements – means the technical specification, product certification and hazardous area classification of ventilation equipment must be scrutinised.
Demystifying ATEX, the name commonly given to the two European Directives for controlling explosive atmospheres and ensuring correctly certified equipment, can be complex and confused. Internet searches are awash with website links to spurious and frankly fake products purporting to be ATEX fans.
For instance this week, we received a technical enquiry from a leading manufacturer of healthcare products who were evaluating electrical heating, lighting, ventilation fans and ducting suitable for confined space working in hazardous areas (ATEX Zones) – the ATEX portable fans were required to be robust and reliable, portable yet powerful but above all Safe & Compliant.
The client had received several offers but had serious misgivings concerning actual product compliance with the ATEX Directive.
Following investigation and basic competitor analysis it was discovered that the fans did not comply to BSEN14986:2017 – this is a specific standard that sets out requirements for design, manufacture, testing and labelling of fans for use in potentially hazardous areas.
BEWARE FATAL FANS!
It is becoming an increasing concern the amount of ATEX products which are finding their way onto the marketplace, which in my opinion belong in a scrap yard. Products are being put onto the UK and European market that are dangerous. Possibly, fatal.
Certificates prove compliance with the standards requested by the manufacturer but what if the manufacturer does not seek compliance with all the relevant standards for the product being manufactured? How can a manufacturer claim a fan is ATEX certified if it was never tested or checked for compliance with BSEN14986:2017?
The reality is that some of the components, perhaps the motor and the switch are correctly certified for use in explosive atmospheres, but this does not mean the complete fan unit will be compliant and safe to use.
When making any comparisons to other portable ATEX fans duty-holders must ensure they are certified to both ATEX electrical and ATEX mechanical standards.
Fully Certified Solutions
RVT Group are pleased to be offering the market-leading ATEX Exstream Fans under the names of Ventex 300P ATEX IECEX and Ventex 400M ATEX IECEX.
These fans provide powerful and portable ventilation in hazardous areas – specified for safe and reliable extraction and ventilation of dangerous gases and vapors in explosive atmospheres with airflow capability up to 7750m3/hr. Both ATEX & IECEx certified to Electrical & Non-Electrical Standards (Mechanical) for Zone 1 & Zone 2 ventilation applications.
Click here to download the Ventex 300P ATEX IECEX specification
Click here to download the Ventex 400M ATEX IECEX specification
Further Information
Click here to view RVT’s full range of Confined Space Equipment
Click here to download our Confined Space Whitepaper
Click here to read Terry McDonald’s original blog post
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