We provide ATEX Inspections on a worldwide basis to organisations, operators, manufacturers and distributors, and across many industries within the oil, gas, petrochemical, chemical, offshore, power generation, steel and heavy engineering industries.

What is ATEX?

ATEX is an abbreviation for ” ATmosphere EXplosible”. At the same time, ATEX is the abbreviated name of the European Directive 94/9/EC concerning the placing on the market of explosion-proof electrical and mechanical equipment, components and protective systems. It came into force on 1 July 2003, and all new equipment and protective systems have been subject to it since that date. The transitional period allowed for the conversion of existing equipment that was manufactured and put into operation prior to 1 July 2003 expired with effect from 1 July 2006. This means that such equipment must also be fully compliant with ATEX 94/9/EC from 1 July 2006 onwards.

The ATEX directive places responsibility on employers control or eliminate the risks arising from operations that may contain potentially explosive atmospheres and to ensure they that the employees have a safe place of work.Employers must also be able to demonstrate that they have taken a consideration of risk for the overall protection safety measures and must provide evidence for any explosion protection measure that is implemented.In order to verify compliance and the integrity of electrical explosion protection safety equiment and measures, the international standard IEC 60079-17 provides guidance in order to inspect and maintain all electrical equipment within a hazardous ATEX area.