ATEX CONVERSION - GENERALITIES

Info Sheet PO54 - Issue 1 : August 1997

Background
The ATEX Directive, 94/9/EC, becomes mandatory for all equipment within its scope which will be first
placed on the market in the European Community after 30 June 2003. Since this refers to individual
items of equipment, not an equipment type, it will be necessary to "convert" all pre-existing certification
documentation into that required for ATEX by 1 July 2003 if it is intended that the equipment should
remain in production, or, having been previously produced, sold for the first time within the Community,
from that date.
Further information on the ATEX Directive and its various modules is given in EECS Info Sheet P010
and related sheets.
Production Phase
Because of the foresight of EECS in designing its Conformity Assurance Programme around the
anticipated requirements of the ATEX Production Modules, conversion of an EECS Licence into an
EECS ATEX Quality Notification is a straightforward process and all existing customers are being
offered a "free upgrade". Our customers incur no additional expense and have no need to take any
further action, other than confirming the wish to hold the additional document.
Those relying on Product Verification for the production phase will also find that the process remains
identical.
Design (Type Examination) Phase
A key feature of the ATEX Directive is that manufacturers and notified bodies are required to take
account of "Current Technological Knowledge". This means that the EC-Type Examination Certificates
issued for ATEX must relate to the latest issues of applicable standards (or, potentially, to common
public knowledge not yet published in standards, if it is directly relevant to safety).
The majority of certificates issued by EECS over the past few years have related to EN50014 to
EN50020. These standards have recently been republished as second editions. For virtually all

"technological" purposes, the second editions can be regarded as satisfying the requirements of the
ATEX Directive. There are some issues relating to the environment that the equipment is intended to
be used in which are not fully addressed in the standards and, of course, the directive requires a new
form of marking.
Although the second edition standards have not yet been "harmonised" for the purpose of the older
directives, by agreement with manufacturers EECS has been using them, in conjunction with the first
editions, to try and "future proof" the test and assessment work that has been done in recent years.
Thus, if you hold a comparatively recent certificate, even to the first edition, it is possible that your
equipment already meets the "technological" criteria of the ATEX Directive, and that EECS holds
appropriate documentary evidence.
Under such circumstances, provided that the environmental issues (susceptability to chemical attack,
vibration, etc.) are addressed by your installation and maintenance instructions, and you make the
necessary changes to the marking, it should be a relatively easy process to issue the EC-Type
Examination Certificate.
For older existing certificates, not all of the requirements of the second editions may have been fully
addressed. In this case it will be necessary to perform additional assessment work (and possibly
testing) to provide the appropriate evidence. We have a series of information sheets highlighting the
important differences between the first and second editions, P033 to P038, and these can be used to
quickly form a view as to whether any of the differences are likely to be applicable to a particular
design of equipment.
Note also, however, that there have been changes to the standards throughout the years, since first
published in 1977, and some of these may also be relevant. In particular, there was the major change
affecting the requirements for plastics materials incorporated in EN50014 in 1982.
Certification to standards pre-dating 1977 is unlikely to provide sufficient evidence of current
requirements without effectively starting the assessment work from scratch. However, we will do all we
can to use the information and drawings that are available to us to minimise the cost of providing the
new documentation, should it be required. In most cases, products certified to the older standards will
have completed their life cycle by 2003.
Encapsulated equipment and Type "N" equipment merit special mention, being outwith the scope of
the currently published second editions. If relevant, please see EECS Info Sheets P053 and P052.
Intrinsically Safe Systems to EN50039 are outside the scope of the ATEX Directive, so it is not
necessary to take action with certificates to this standard, other than to update them if the certificate
number related to a part of the system changes. It is currently planned to provide a second edition of
EN50039, at some time in the future, to reflect the changes in EN50020 and in installation practice.
Where EECS does not publish an Info Sheet giving information on the technological status of a
standard, the information can be obtained directly from EECS, on request.

For more information and details of EECS services contact:

Electrical Equipment Certification Service
Health and Safety Executive
Harpur Hill
Buxton SK17 9JN
United Kingdom
[44] (0) 1298 28000 Fax: [44] (0) 1298 28244