When building components for our customers’ projects, Mecanizados Delinte takes into account several factors, from usability to safety. It is especially important in equipment such as metal electrical cabinets. For this reason, all European Union countries follow regulations for components or equipment that may be used in potentially explosive atmospheres or environments. Today we want to focus on the one that affects one of them: ATEX cabinets.
The regulation affects ATEX enclosures individually, but not only. The detailed guidelines result in the evaluation of all components as well. This is because of the seriousness of an explosion in the workplace. For this reason, special care is taken to ensure that they do not come into contact with particularly susceptible substances or materials.
Possibility of explosion
Explosive atmospheres are defined as those in which there is a mixture of flammable substances in the form of gases, vapors or dusts in the air. Under these conditions, when ignition of these substances occurs, the total propagation of combustion is triggered. They are present in a large number of industries, from agriculture and livestock to timber and chemicals, to give just a few examples.
For an explosion to occur, several conditions must be met simultaneously, such as the mixture of combustible substances with the oxygen present in the air in the precise proportion that creates an explosive atmosphere and that this is in contact with a source of ignition.
It is clear that in this type of atmosphere it is very important that arcing and sparks that may occur due to failures or perhaps misuse of the instrumentation be avoided. separated as far as possible from explosive atmospheresor minimize their contact to the point of avoiding ignition.
Protection in ATEX atmospheres
Directive 2014/34/EU (ATEX 95), which came into force on April 20, 2016, defines the specifications for the equipment and use of electrical and non-electrical equipment in an explosive atmosphere. A classification scheme sets out the essential requirements on safety and health protection for equipment.
All equipment installed in an ATEX zone must be protected against the risk of explosion. The equipment in these zones, such as the ATEX cabinet, must be certified by an organization approved for this purpose in accordance with the aforementioned directive. The certification consists of a specific marking of the product category and the area and atmosphere in which it can be used.
ATEX cabinets are certified as components. They are combined with other ATEX components (electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, etc.) to form a final solution that must be ATEX certified.
All the ATEX cabinets that we manufacture at
Mecanizados Delinte
comply with the required standards of protection against the risk of explosion. We manufacture cabinets in galvanized sheet metal or stainless steel for the analysis of liquids or gases in ATEX zones. These products can be SAM enclosures, ATEX or pressurized enclosures. They can be heated or insulated with rock wool and meet IP or NEMA standards.
Our company has the technical capacity to create prototypes and industrial metal developments to achieve unique parts for any industrial sector, especially electrical metal cabinets. If you want to know what we can do to develop the product you need, do not hesitate to contact us by calling 91 677 03 64 or filling out the form so that we can contact you and provide you with a quote according to what you are looking for.