Electrical Equipment in Hazardous Areas inspections done properly
Inspection Connect is designed to facilitate every conceivable type of inspection across maintenance, structural inspections and environmental inspections, but one area where Inspection Connect is increasingly being considered is for EEHA inspections.
Electrical Equipment in Hazardous Areas (EEHA) inspections are mandatory for any electrical equipment or installations that are situated within potentially explosive gas or dust atmospheres.
These potentially explosive environments are rated as hazardous areas, explosive atmospheres, or ‘Ex Areas’. Hazardous Areas are classified from Zone 0 (the highest risk of explosion) to Zone 2 (very low risk of explosion).
The equipment installed or used in these zones must be explosion proof and rated with an Ex code that specifies a level of protection required for the risks of the given location.
Such equipment is termed ‘Ex Equipment’ and it may also be certified for use under the IECEx International Certification System (International Electrotechnical Commission System for Certification To Standards Relating To Equipment for Use In Explosive Atmospheres). IECEx certification ensures that Ex Equipment operates under the strictest safety requirements to prevent all risks of explosion.
5 aspects of EEHA inspections that benefit from a mobile approach
The Silverhorse solution to Field Mobility is Inspection Connect which allows field access to information and forms published within our core Completions Connect system.
Stay safe
When conducting Electrical Equipment of Hazardous Areas (EEHA) inspections, it is essential that intrinsically safe IECEx tablets are used by personnel. Inspection Connect can run on IECEx tablets and it does not require a permanent internet connection. On completion of work in the field, the inspection data is synchronised back to the cloud-based Completions Connect system once an online connection is established.
Go mobile
Mobile tablets simplify the execution of inspection processes to improve work efficiency. By feeding data back into core systems, they provide the ability to standardise common tasks and improve data capture, accessibility and transparency/reporting. They also eliminate the challenges of using paper-based processes and reduce administration time involved with storing and managing data. Inspection Connect allows field access to information and forms published within our core Completions Connect system. This data can be used to create work scopes associated with inspections and automate workflows. Inspections Connect provides access to published forms which can be updated and issued for use in an instant to remote teams.
Use work packs
Work Packs or Work Packages detail the labour, equipment, and materials required to complete inspection tasks according to timescales set out in the inspection schedule. Your inspection schedule should automatically deliver the inspection work packs to the inspection teams. Inspection Connect provides the ability to schedule inspection campaigns within Completions Connect and deploy the work packs to Inspection Connect for field execution.
Retain knowledge
The Ex Inspection process should be readily able to gather ‘ad hoc’ data about the asset that might be of benefit for later maintenance or to warn of potential problems in the future. Examples include the listing of any special tools not usually carried by the Inspector or the identification of potential hazards in close proximity whilst being able to capture additional remarks that apply specifically to performing the task.
Inspection Connect allows such data to be entered against any equipment tag by the inspector, at the scene. Additionally, legacy inspection reports and associated information may be imported and stored against individual equipment tags which allows instant access to historical data.
Review procedures
The manager who defines the Ex inspection campaign plan and verifies the suitability of the inspection regime (the Technical Person with Executive Function) needs to have the flexibility to review and adjust, or even override, the time-based Inspection Campaign in favour of more ‘Risk Based Inspection‘ approaches as necessary. Inspection Connect allows Inspection schedules to be overridden or updated as required with the ability to schedule different inspection levels for individual equipment tags and to automatically escalate the level of inspection from visual or close to detailed if defects or areas of concern are discovered during inspections.
Secure the data
Paper-based inspection processes are notoriously susceptible to loss of data. By going digital with mobile tablets, the data is collected, stored, and managed much more securely and with less errors.
Inspection Connect naturally synchronises with Completions Connect whenever there is an internet connection and when it does, all of the collected data is backed up safely.
Inspections Connect working in partnership with Completions Connect provides total freedom for you to specify any kind of inspection process. The Connect suite of software doesn’t dictate the process you need to use. Rather, we take the processes or workflows that you’re already using and we publish these into the system. Inspection Connect is an extension of Completions Connect. Work Packs are built and assigned in Completions Connect and then deployed to the tablets for access in the field. This allows logical groupings of work to be created and executed accordingly.
In summary, Electrical Equipment in Hazardous Areas (EEHA) inspections require the ability to be agile about the inspection process. The process needs to be flexible, and it needs to be reliable. Also, you have to be sure that you’re doing more than just inspecting. You need processes and policies in place that react to the outputs of the inspection process. Where actions and corrective maintenance are specified, you need a management system which is going to ensure that these actions are followed through on in a timely fashion.
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