Static electricity in explosive and fire-hazardous areas.

To neutralise static electricity charges, designers and manufacturers of equipment and systems intended for use in potentially explosive environments are advised to use antistatic materials and dielectrics. The development of new technological processes, machines and devices must take into account the need to prevent dangerous static electrification of substances during their industrial production.

To protect against the accumulation and manifestation of static electricity charges on equipment, measures should be taken, taking into account the specifics of production, to ensure the drainage of charges, the removal of charges by grounding equipment housings, the removal of charges by reducing specific volume and surface electrical resistances, neutralising charges by using radioisotope, induction and other neutralisers.

Every day, countless people work in potentially hazardous conditions due to the specific materials and equipment used in certain industrial production processes. For various reasons, even a small spark can cause fires and explosions in these areas, posing a serious danger to the company and its employees. That is why such high-risk areas are called ATEX zones — a special term used to designate areas containing flammable or explosive gases or vapours.

In these areas, the cause of a fire can be not only the materials themselves, but also the presence of electrostatic charges that accumulate during the production process. Therefore, it is important to know how to behave and how to eliminate static electricity so as not to endanger yourself and your colleagues.

Static electricity in explosive and fire-hazardous areas is an uncontrollable parameter that can occur at any time and lead to both an explosion and an uncontrolled fire involving combustible products.

The danger of static voltage cannot be overestimated in production facilities or facilities where explosive impurities are present in the air; the energy of a spark is sufficient to cause an explosion of an air-fuel mixture. Serious attention is paid to combating this dangerous phenomenon.

Manufacturers of equipment intended for potentially explosive environments pay serious attention to this problem.

When testing equipment, our experts have repeatedly encountered situations where manufacturers were forced to replace equipment components due to the accumulation of static electricity in them.