The Oil & Gas industry developed and established safety standards worldwide to ensure all work undertaken in the industry is safe.

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As welding and fabrication work causes additional risk to Oil & Gas installations, in order to mitigate this risk the industry uses pressurized rooms called welding habitats to isolate a potential explosive area (Zone 1 or 2) from any required hot-work undertaken.

Pressurized (rooms) welding habitats are regulated by the international IEC60079-13 Equipment protection by pressurized room "p” standard.

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Only welding habitat systems certified by a 3rd party certifying body can legally be operated in ATEX or IECEx Zone 1 explosive atmosphere.

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In Europe, under the ATEX 2014/34/EU Directive, all equipment requires a proper manufacturer's EU Declaration of Conformity. For Zone 1 welding habitats this EU Declaration of Conformity must be based on a Notified Body issued EU–Type Examination Certificate for pressurized habitats (rooms) EN 60079-13.

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Most countries outside of Europe (such as the UAE, Canada, Australia, Brazil) require IECEx Certification for both Zone 1 & 2 areas. Welding habitats must have an IECEx Certificate of Conformity issued by a Certification Body in accordance with the IECEx 02 Certified Equipment Scheme and IEC60079-13 standard.

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Warning - there are habitat companies on the market that are using ATEX or IECEx component certification (the fan, the control unit, gas detection, lights, etc.) to convince customers that the habitat is ATEX compliant, but these habitats lack the required system certification to IEC60079-13. Practically the same as trying to convince someone about the roadworthiness of a car, by providing the certification for the tyres, lights, engine, etc., instead of the certificate for the car.

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Welding habitat certification is not about the individual component compliance – that’s a given – it is about what the habitat as a system does: completely separating potential explosive atmosphere from hot work using a controlled overpressure system combined with an automatic shutdown unit certified to IEC60079-13.

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Be sure your hot-work habitat system is safe!