Author: Carina Knörzer

Within the scope of harmonizing the laws of the Member States of the European Union the ATEX Directive has been amended.

From April 20^th 2016 the new Directive 2014/34/EU is applicable. It replaces the former directive 94/9/EC and covers equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.

Just like the former version, the Directive 2014/34/EU defines all the essential health and safety requirements and conformity assessment procedures, to be applied before products are placed on the EU market.

There have been a few changes which are relevant for manufacturers:

• the EC declaration of conformity becomes an EU declaration of conformity
• the EC type examination certificate becomes an EU type examination certificate
• importers are required to put their names and addresses on the products
• manufacturer’s responsibilities, with regard to placing the products on the market, are more precisely defined and reinforced

These things do not change:

• the scope of the directive and its essential health and safety requirements
• the CE marking (it concerns the European Conformity)
• the conformity assessment procedures
• the classification of groups and categories of equipment and the “ATEX” marking

For more information please visit the homepage of the European Union.