ATEX Equipment Directive

During the period that this was in transition, and for the 2 years after it came fully into force, Alan provided regular technical input to what was then the Department of Trade and Industry as interpretation issues were unravelled. Specifically Alan provided specialist support to the DTI at meetings of the EU commission ATEX standing committee, and provided the UK input in the committee which drafted the 2005 edition of the ATEX guidelines. He continues to be active in this field through standards work.

After 20 years unchanged the 1994 ATEX directive has been updated,and its replacement directive 2014-34/EU comes fully into force in 2016. No changes to the essential safety requirements were made. Nor were changes to the nomenclature of equipment types, so there is a large difference between IEC terminology and EU terminology.

For an analysis of the changes this site is very useful

Go to the guidelines and other related documents on the EU commission website