1. Eliminate the Hazard First

Explosion protection does not start with Ex equipment. If the flammable substance, release, or atmosphere can be removed, reduced, or substituted, that is always the strongest control. Everything else is secondary risk management.

2. Prevention Is More Important Than Protection

Once an explosive atmosphere exists, you are already in a degraded safety state. The goal is to prevent formation of explosive atmospheres through process control, ventilation, containment and operational discipline. Protection methods only deal with failure scenarios.

3. Ignition Control Is Non-Negotiable

An explosion requires an ignition source. Explosion protection is fundamentally about systematic ignition source control any which is electrical, mechanical, electrostatic, thermal and/or human-induced. If ignition sources are not controlled across the full lifecycle, compliance is an illusion.

4. Hazardous Area Classification Drives Everything

Zone classification is not paperwork — it is the design input for equipment selection, installation rules, inspection strategy, maintenance philosophy. Bad classification leads to perfect paperwork and unsafe reality.

5. Equipment Compliance Does Not Equal System Safety

Certified Ex equipment can still create dangerous installations. Explosion protection applies to the system, including the components like cable entries, earthing, interfaces, human interaction and failure modes. Certificates do not compensate for bad engineering.

6. Explosion Protection Is a Lifecycle Responsibility

Explosion risk changes over time. Design, installation, operation, maintenance, repair, and modification all affect safety. If explosion protection is treated as a "handover item", it will eventually fail.

7. Competence Matters More Than Documentation

Documents don't prevent explosions — people do. Training, experience, and engineering judgement are decisive. A competent team with imperfect paperwork is safer than perfect paperwork with no understanding.

Keep up the good work!

Arpad
veress@exprofessional.com