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Overview of North American Hazardous Locations System

The North American system for the manufacture, certification, installation, use and inspection of hazardous locations equipment is clearly a complex topic -– especially for those outside of this system looking in. In an attempt to better understand this system, it might be easiest to consider the overall North American system as a hierarchy.

This hierarchy would begin, as shown below, with the applicable installation Codes that provide a framework for the overall HazLoc system (i.e. National Electrical Code for the U.S. and the Canadian Electrical Code for Canada), and ultimately end with the authorized use of suitable HazLoc equipment in an end-application.

• Installation Codes
• Standards Developing Organizations (SDO's)
• Manufacturers
• Third-Party Certifiers
• Users
• Inspection Authorities

For comments or questions on our hazardous locations site, please contact hazloc@ul.com.

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