Ignition hazard assessments have been common place in the industry for many years, with the primary focus on electrical equipment. QEM can carry out ignition hazard and DSEAR assessments for both electrical and non-electrical equipment.
New legislation however has now forced the Industry to apply the same risk assessment controls to non-electrical ignition hazards. i.e. mechanical items that could cause a spark. Generally these are things such as slamshuts, motors, pumps etc, basically anything that could casue a release of kinetic energy, friction of static discharge.
In Feb 2016, BS EN 80079 (-36 & -37) standard was published. This replaced two earlier attempts to address the issue in 2001 and 2009 with the BS EN 13463 suite. The revamped BS EN 80079 provides greater clarity but still has a long way to go to bring it up to standard with the electrical side of DSEAR regulations. That being said, with the rigorous support of the industry and the HSE, BS EN 80079 (-36 & -37) is being enforced far more stringently.
So, it’s time to get compliant.
The energy & utilities industry is still far behind the curve with this one and will need to act fast if they are to apply practical solutions to prove that they are compliant wiht the latest requirements.
The key however is to do your homework, prior to assessing your assets. By doing a suitable desk-based assessment you can exclude many items therefore saving a huge amount of resource time on the physical risk assessments.
Services offered:
-
DSEAR assessments (To SR25 and IP16)
-
Exclusion reviews to exclude no applicable equipment making the process more efficient
-
Non-electrical ignition hazard inspections (CompEX 11 qualified)
-
Non-electrical ignition hazard assessments (BS EN 80079)
-
Electrical ignition hazard assessments (BS EN 60079)