Submitted by Tom Bishop, P.E., Technical Services Committee Chair
on behalf of John Allen
Representing EASA on IECEx Committees
Sheppard Engineering Ltd.
Solihull, United Kingdom
John Allen represents EASA on the IECEx subcommittee related to IEC 60079-19, the repair standard for hazardous location motors and generators. Tom Bishop represents EASA on the maintenance team (subcommittee) for IEC 60079-1, which deals with manufacturing. The following report from John summarizes the highlights of his IECEx activities for the second half of 2019. The second part of his report will appear in next month’s issue.
May: IECEx Mid-Term Meetings in Singapore
As an EASA representative, I attended the IECEx mid-term meetings, where discussions of the service facility scheme (ExSFC) and the competence of persons scheme (ExPCC) took place.
ExSFC WG 5 is the working group for Certification Bodies (CBs) assessing service facilities repairing and overhauling Ex Equipment to IEC 60079-19. The operational documents had been in use for several years and required no amendment. During the meeting, I raised concerns that I had received from service facilities in the scheme, relating to the quality of assessment by the IECEx CBs of their service facilities and, specifically, the competency of these assessors used by the CBs in relation to the processes used within a service facility compared to a manufacturing facility.
The working group agreed that this was an issue to be raised in the ExSFC committee. It recommended that the scheme should introduce peer assessment for the assessment of service facilities in order to verify the competence of assessors used by the CBs and try to introduce some uniformity in the standard of assessment. This was submitted by ExSFC to the IECEx Management Committee (IECEx ExMC) meeting for approval.
ExPCC working group meetings began with ExPCC WG 2 Units of Competency (OD 503), for which I am convenor. Amongst other business, there was extensive discussion on the acceptance mark percentage for the IECEx Units of Competency knowledge competence segment. This had originally been 85 percent, but was reduced to 80 percent. After a long debate, the WG agreed to accept 75 percent. The pass mark for the practical demonstration of competence remained at 100 percent. This includes IECEx Unit of competence IECEx 05 for overhaul and repair of Ex Equipment to IEC 60079-19 as an operator or responsible person.
ExPCC WG 3 controls the question bank used during knowledge assessment. Its meeting discussed the need for requirements for repair and overhaul of certified non-electrical Ex Equipment. As a result, I was nominated to represent ExPCC at the meetings of TC31M, which is the joint IEC/ ISO technical committee producing standards for non-electrical Ex Equipment. The meetings of ExSFC & ExPCC committees endorsed the recommendations of the working groups and submitted them to the IECEx ExMC for approval.
March: TC31 Meeting in Wallenberg, Germany
WG 27 is a horizontal WG in TC31 that reviews all Ex standards drafts produced by TC31 relating
to electric machines. Its meeting considered some amendments to IEC 60079-1 (Ex “d”) flameproof standard, proposed changes to the current draft of IEC 60079-2 (Ex”p”) pressurized equipment and reviewed the latest draft of IEC 60079-7 (Ex “e”) increased safety, specifically requirements for comparable converters and proposed a draft Annex with additional information about comparable converters. This compares the converter used on site against the converter used when the Ex electric machine was tested and certified.
The maintenance team for the latest draft of IEC 60079-1 (Ex “d”) standard reviewed the comments from National Committees and WG 27. My long-term objective has been to persuade manufacturers attending the committee meetings to make available all the relevant information that the user and repair facility need and to ensure the Ex Equipment is safe and, where possible, making these a requirement of the standard. This still has a long way to go, but there are signs that progress is being made.
September: IECEx AGM Meetings in Dubai
The IECEx system is growing with 35 member countries with more than 90,000 Certificates of Conformity (CoC) and Test Reports (ExTR) for Ex Equipment on the IECEx website. These certificates can be viewed and downloaded online at iecex. com by going to the dropdown tab labeled “Certificates and Licenses.”
The service facility scheme is growing slowly but steadily with more than 300 CoCs for service facilities, now on the IECEx website. All the recommendations from the ExSFC and ExPCC meetings were accepted by IECEx MC.
This concludes Part 1. Par 2 will appear in next month’s issue of Currents.