Posted By Jos you have up to the 30th of June 2006 to become fully compliant with DSEAR..... If you have zoned areas then the equipment must comply with the EX standard.

Posted By Mike Draper I have some sympathy with Dave's comments, above. The key points are to have your hazardous area classification and ignition risk assessment. The latter may force you to implement modifications to your equipment, but only if you determine that there is a risk. You should bear in mind that if the equipment is very old, that you may not be using it as was originally intended, rendering whatever forms of prevention and protection that were provided less effective. However I suspect that in principle the SM(S)R principles would apply. There is no requirement in SM(S)R to CE mark existing or second hand equipment that was put into service in the EU prior to the introduction of the Machinery Directive. But you are obliged to keep up to date with legislative requirements and the state of knowledge in the field. As a for instance, the Buncefield investigation appears to challenging the state of knowledge on flammable vapour cloud formation and explosion prediction.