Quick question I was hoping someone should help me with. If a company purchases a piece of equipment that is to be used in an potential explosive atmosphere, is it enough that the equipment as a whole is provided with a protection certificate rather than each individual atex rated pump/valve etc? It was my understanding, and I admit I could well be wrong, is that each component should be supplied with its own certificate but the manufacturer are saying that because we purchased the equipment preassembled the one certificate is enough as its certificated as if it was the sum of its parts. Their explanation does make sense but I'd just like verification for my own piece of mind.

A very clear and easily understandable example roshqse. Cheers.

That was going to be the lead of my next question. The site has an existing area classification and DSEAR assessment, zoning etc for its existing storage facilities but are adding a new process to the existing functions. Does this new process require a verification before first use by a competent person or can it just be included as part of the existing asessment? The DSEAR Regs state that "Before a workplace containing places classified as hazardous pursuant to paragraph 1 is used for the first time, the employer shall ensure that its overall explosion safety is verified by a person who is competent...." Obviously the site has ongoing operations that are covered already and this is a new process on the site. So whilst the workplace as a whole isn't coming in to use for the first time, this particular part of the process is and so wondering if the 'part of a workplace' is applicable.

Printing with solvent based inks. The item in question is a small solvent recovery planet which will be installed next to a solvent storage tank farm in an external location. New installs is not an area of DSEAR that I deal with on a daily basis.