ATEX Radio Systems

Where flammable gas, vapour or combustible dust can be present, a radio is not judged on coverage or audio quality first. It is judged on whether it can produce a spark or a hot surface.

An ATEX or IECEx certified radio is engineered so that, in normal operation and under defined fault conditions, it cannot release enough energy to ignite the surrounding atmosphere. That is achieved by limiting stored and switched energy, by encapsulation, and by controlling surface temperature.

The critical point, and the one most often missed in practice: certification is granted to the complete assembly. The radio plus that battery, and where applicable that antenna and that speaker microphone. Change any certified component for an uncertified one and the approval no longer applies — instantly, and regardless of the markings on the housing.

Equipment certified for a more demanding class may be used in a less demanding one; the reverse is never true. A Zone 1 radio does not enter Zone 0.

The zone map itself comes from the facility’s explosion protection document. Suppliers do not classify zones, and a supplier who offers to is a warning sign.

The hazardous-area constraint narrows the equipment list; it does not by itself choose the system. That follows the same logic as anywhere else:

• DMR for most industrial sites — the widest certified model range and the lowest infrastructure cost
• TETRA where the site is large, multi-agency, or an outage carries consequences beyond production
• PoC for supporting fleets outside the plant, where certified terminals exist for the roles that need them

Where the plant includes enclosed process structures, tank farms or underground sections, coverage inside them is a separate design problem and is solved separately.

• Battery discipline. Certified batteries only, tracked by serial number, with a controlled replacement cycle. This is the single most common route to an invalid device.
• Documented repair. Authorised facility, original certified parts, records kept.
• Inspection records. Periodic checks of housing integrity, seals and markings, documented for audit.
• Training. Users need to understand that swapping a battery in the field is not a neutral act.

TechnoRF supplies certified Hytera equipment against your zone classification, maintains the spares and battery pool, handles certified repair, and keeps the documentation that an inspection will ask for.

Oil, gas and petrochemical plants, refineries and tank farms, chemical and paint production, mines and their surface handling, grain silos, flour mills and feed plants, energy facilities with fuel handling, and pharmaceutical solvent areas. Dust hazards — flour, grain, sugar, wood, metal powder — are frequently underestimated and are covered by the same regime. Get in touch.