IECEx Organization and Instruments
There is only one member body of the IECEx System in a particular country, as representative of the national conformity assessment community in Ex equipment. Typically, this is either the National Committee of IEC itself, or a body notified to the IEC by the National Committee. The member bodies delegate up to three persons to participate in the "Ex Management Committee (ExMC)." Meetings of the ExMC are held at least annually.
The officers of the ExMC presently include:
- Chairman: Kerry McManama of UL, USA
- Vice Chairman: Liu Weijun of Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China, China
- Secretary: Chris Agius of IEC Central Office, Australia
- Treasurer: Heinz Berger of CERTICONSULT GmbH, Switzerland
The IECEx System accredits HazLoc agencies as competent and experienced IECEx Certification Bodies (ExCBs) and IECEx Testing Laboratories (ExTLs). As part of this accreditation process, candidate agencies are assessed by IECEx peer-assessors (appointed by the ExMC), with this assessment being according to international quality documents such as ISO/IEC Guides 65 and 17025.
HazLoc certification bodies and testing laboratories from all participating countries comprise the Ex Testing and Assessment Group (ExTAG) which deals with the technical application of the Ex equipment IEC standards. The ExTAG mainly harmonizes different interpretations, and details the testing and evaluation of products so as to achieve the highest reproducibility of test results possible. The chairman of ExTAG is a member of the ExMC. In case of a dispute between ExCBs or between ExTLs, there is a Board of Appeal responsible for the recommendation of a solution based on their review of the matter.
ExCBs issue IECEx Certificates of Conformity (CoC) on the basis of Test Reports (ExTRs) prepared by an ExTL. Also, the issuance of these certificates require an audit report to give evidence that the product is manufactured under quality plans complying with the principles of ISO 9001 (with focus on the production of Ex equipment). Specific requirements for these Ex quality plans are in OD 005-1, IECEx Quality System Requirements for Manufacturers Part 1: Guidance on the establishment and maintenance of a quality system. After a successful product evaluation and quality system audit of a given apparatus, the manufacturer is authorized to ship the apparatus with the IECEx CoC number.
