Participation: Full or Transitional
 Full Participation
Participation at this level provides for the issuing of IECEx certificates of conformity as well as a license to use the IECEx mark. As mentioned earlier, this scheme provides an internationally recognized means of proving product compliance with the relevant IEC standard, and, as such, an IEC certificate of conformity can only be issued in accordance to an IEC standard. Therefore IECEx certificates of conformity can not cover national differences. In this context national differences are those differences between a national and IEC standard. To ensure integrity and equity in the scheme, strict obligations on a country's participation at this level are part of the rules; namely:
- the corresponding national standard must be identical to the IEC standard for which participation is sought; and
- the IECEx Certificate of Conformity must be given equal treatment to the country's national certification.
While full participation in the Scheme may be regarded as an ambitious goal, there has been an increased level of activity within IEC/TC31 regarding the development of new editions of, and substantive revisions to, the old IEC standards over the past five to ten years. This activity has been driven by the objective of national and regional bodies to have any national/regional differences included directly in the appropriate IEC standard. Thus eliminating these items as national or regional differences.
Participation at a Transitional Level
Currently, the range of differing national Ex standards means that large-scale participation at the full level is some time away. To cater to today's needs, there is provision for participation at an intermediate or transitional level. This is intended for those countries:
- whose national standards are not yet identical to the IEC, or
- that do not yet accept IECEx certificates of conformity as equal to their own national certification.
Participation at the transitional level provides for the mutual acceptance of assessment and test reports for the purpose of issuing national certification, similar to the current IECEE-CB Scheme for electrical appliances. Under this arrangement, an "Assessment and Test Report" issued by country A would be accepted by country B, with country B issuing its own national certification based on the report issued by country A. Such Reports issued under this arrangement may also cover the testing and assessment to national differences.
Return to UL's homepage on the IECEx Scheme.
For comments or questions on this page, or any other issues associated with hazardous locations, please click here.
|
