CompEx Certification's Technical Development Manager John Harris will be speaking at Hazardex Live 2024 about a newly established non-electrical inspection schedule for inspector that is in its final stages of development.

CompEx is the international scheme for competency validation and certification of personnel who work in explosive atmospheres. Through a network of independent training and assessment centres, the CompEx Scheme supports practitioners in a range of industrial sectors including oil and gas, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food manufacturing and utilities. The CompEx Scheme was developed in 1993 to provide the UK oil and gas sector with credible assurance of transferable skills and competency for electrical, control and instrumentation technicians operating in hazardous areas. Since that time CompEx has continued to incorporate a range of competency qualifications to embrace a diverse range of roles across differing industrial sectors.

Currently the CompEx technical team is undertaking a review of the Mechanical (Ex11) qualification which covers the installation, maintenance, and inspection of Non-Electrical (Mechanical) equipment in hazardous areas. During the research and development, it became clear that there is a lack of clarity over how hazardous area inspections on non-electrical equipment is expected to be carried out. There is no industry ‘best practice’ guidance or a standardised approach defined in a standard, as there is in IEC 60079-17 for Electrical equipment installed in hazardous areas.

CompEx has established an industry working group of stakeholders and approved training providers to create a non-electrical inspection schedule for inspectors. This is in the final stages of development and will be included in the new Mechanical (Ex11) qualification and associated inspection assessment. The schedule will also be included the CompEx Toolbox Guide.

The hope is that through this continuous collaborative approach with industry, the CompEx Non-Electrical inspection schedule will be adopted as a ‘Best Practice’ document to support inspectors of equipment, operators, and the regulator to ensure that this equipment is installed and maintained safely and efficiently.

This paper will explore the review and development process involved in the creation of the schedule from initial concept, working group collaboration and industry trails of the document and process.

About the author:

John Harris is the Technical Development Manager at CompEx. A time served electrician with experience installing and maintaining EC&I equipment in the Oil and Gas, Steel and Power Generation sectors, John joined CompEx’s parent company JTL over 15 years ago, training and assessing candidates in Electrical Engineering before taking the roles of Field Officer and EQA in the CompEx team. John has extensive experience of working in the Regulated and non-Regulated qualifications sector. John plays a key technical role in chairing and facilitating the development and ongoing review of CompEx’s range of qualifications and services.