Either an EU or UK Type Certificate is required for any category 1 or 2 equipment supplied for use in the Uk. These both similar to each other with the UK Type Certificat declaring to the UK regulations instead of the Atex directive.

The Type Certificate has historically been the required document for proof of compliance for equipment to be used in Hazardous Areas. With the introduction of Atex, marking and EC Declarations of conformity the EC Type Certificate remained the mandatory document for evidence of Atex compliance to the 1999 directive.

The 2014 Atex Directive changes that, not only making the EU Declaration of Conformity the mandatory document but removing the requirement for the manufacturer to supply a Type Certificate. The EU Type Certificate becomes part of the technical file and purely a supporting document for the EU DoC.

The Atex Notified Body Type Certificates generally are of the same number/title format.
Typically - Notified body name or abbreviation, 2 number for year of issue, "ATEX", then Certificate No.  _NB yy_ATEXnnnn
E.g. (From SGS Basseefa) BAS19ATEXnnn for an EU Type Certificate issued in 2019.

Now the UK has left the EU, all UK certification companies lost their Notified Bodies status but all have re-registered via European partners or group companies and agreements are in place to honour old certificates.

Variations

For any changes to the original certificate a Variation will be issued, this is indicated by appending the certificate number with a "/" followed by the variation number. E.g. SIRA08ATEXnnnn /3 indicating a Sira EC Type Certificate issued in 2008 with 3 variations.

Special Conditions

As part of the certificate there may be special conditions attached, in this case there will be an "X" appended to the certificate number e.g. Intertek certificate ITS17ATEX_nnnn_X. The special conditions are not generally onerous and will be detailed within the Type Certificate, common examples are:

• "Label must include: Anti static Warning: Do not clean with dry cloth" - used on items with high surface area of non-conducting plastic in the enclosure.
• "To be installed in enclosure meeting EN 60079-0" - E.g. For items such as HMI's which must have back protected but does not need to be part of a certified assembly.

Component Approval

If the certificate is appended with a "U" e.g. 17ATEX12345U then it is a 'standalone' approved device but a component and can only be used in the Hazardous area as part of an assembly which has its own 'full' Type Certificate.
Component approved items include empty enclosures, terminals, switches, pushbuttons & indicators¹ etc. and are component certified to make simplify the certification of the complete assembly.

E.g. a control station is made up of components A, B, C which all have component approval on Certificate D, the enclosure may have component approval.
When the Assembly is submitted for certification only the worst case for items A, B, C need be assessed and individual items do not necessarily need to be tested as they have a component certificate.
Anybody using component approved items must have their own assembly certification² this could be a Category 3 'self-certification'³ and a full 'assembly' certificate stating that it can have any components from a list (or component certificate) including A, B & C.

Notes

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