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Let's Go West-- Aber Wie (but how)?

On February 23 and 24, 1999, UL HazLoc engineering staff and PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) HazLoc engineering staff presented a joint symposium on how to export European explosion-protected equipment into North America.

"Let's Go West - Aber Wie?" was offered at PTB's facility in Braunschweig, Germany. Approximately 72 representatives from 50 German HazLoc manufacturers attended.

Presentations were made by both UL and PTB HazLoc staff. Also, a member of the Presidium (Executive Committee) for PTB, a representative from the German Ministry of Economics, and a representative from a leading US/German HazLoc manufacturer presented insights.

An overview of the structure of the North American hazardous locations system was presented by Paul Kelly, UL Hazardous Locations. UL's presentation also included the following technical topics:

To view explanations of the UL topics, click on the links above. We've converted them into PDF files to make them easy to view and print in Acrobat Reader. (Reader can be downloaded free of charge from Adobe Systems Incorporated.)

As a follow-up to the 1999 joint symposium, on May 22 through the 24, 2000, UL and PTB HazLoc engineering staff presented a series of joint Workshops. These Workshops were offered in conjunction with the ACHEMA 2000 show in Frankfurt, Germany, and provided a forum for more hands-on technical discussions regarding North American protection methods and their associated European counterparts.

The following was the schedule for these PTB/UL Workshops presented by Messrs. Ed Briesch, Ben Schaefer and Mike Slowinske, UL Hazardous Locations:

Month
Date
Protection Techniques/
Product Categories
Workshop Locations
May
Monday the 22nd thru Wednesday the 24th
Day 1:
  • General Div. 1 intrinsic safety concepts per UL913
  • Div. 1 Motors, generators & pumps per UL674, UL1207
Day 2:
  • General Div. 1 explosion-proof & dust-ignition-proof concepts, including luminaries per UL1203, UL844
  • Div. 2 equipment per UL1604
Day 3:
  • Div. 1 Boxes & fittings per UL886
  • US Zone 0, 1 & 2 equipment per UL2279
Frankfurt, Germany (held concurrently as the ACHEMA-2000 exhibition)

On-going plans include additional follow-up Workshops involving PTB and UL HazLoc engineering staff that will further expand on specific methods of European and North American explosion protection.

For additional information regarding the 1999 Symposium, 2000 Workshops or other up-coming Workshops, please contact hazloc@ul.com.

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