Italian experience on hazardous area classification and selection of electrical installations and apparatus in industrial plants

The authors give an outline of the Italian Standards relevant to hazardous area classifications and selection of safety electrical equipment and of the present technical trends in this field. Further considerations are reported, resulting from CESI experience in the activities of area classification, verifications on plants and laboratory testing on safety equipment. In this connection particular attention is paid to the problem of the evaluation of the safety level of electrical plants in hazardous areas during their operating life. To this purpose the verification of compliance of aged equipment with safety standard may be necessary