CSA Group Testing UK Ltd

ATEX Product Certification

Ex Products that are placed on the European market must now be certified to ATEX directive 94/9/EC. All such products need to be tested and assessed to the latest ATEX standards. That's where we come in.

With years of experience in the ATEX explosion safety field, we are able to take your product, and, using the expertise of our engineers together with your own specialist knowledge of your product, enable you to declare ATEX compliance through successful certification. Certification can only be provided by Notable Bodies who conduct periodic surveillance of quality management systems.

ATEX 137 and DSEAR

Protecting workers from fire and explosion risks relating to dangerous substances (gases, vapours, liquids, dusts) in potentially explosive atmospheres is essential in order to comply with DSEAR requirements, a framework adopted by the Health & Safety Executive. Responsibilities include:

• Risk Assessment of non-electrical equipment already installed on-site.
• Risk Assessment for work activities involving substances that are considered dangerous.
• The provision of equipment and procedures to deal with accidents and emergencies.
• The provision of employee training and instruction.
• Classification of the site in risk zones.
• The appropriate use of certified equipment in hazardous areas.
• Coordination of site health and safety for ALL site users.

Sira employs a team of DSEAR experts who have backgrounds in operation, production and maintenance for multinationals in the process industry. They can offer practical solutions for all your DSEAR related problems.

Training & Competence Certification

We're all becoming used to stringent guidelines, complicated codes of practice and mandatory legislation. In today's day and age, it's imperative that the industry is alert to these complex requirements and responsibilities. Sira has being providing hazardous area training for over 25 years. Our specialised engineers and lecturers offer a comprehensive range of training courses and competence schemes to get you up to scratch. We offer courses for ATEX, DSEAR, IECEx, IEC 61508 and MCERTS - these can be taken on-site or at our premises. For information on the course structure, please follow the link to the Sira website.

IEC 61508 Functional Safety

Certification to IEC 61508, 61511 and other related standards is being increasingly encouraged by regulatory authorities and sought by end-users as a way of minimising the risks posed to people and the environment. These are accepted international standards that relate to the reliability of electrical or electronic safety systems. Functional safety is primarily concerned with equipment that, in the event of a failure, could potentially do harm.

Accredited by UKAS to undertake its certification activities in accordance with the CASS scheme, Sira is able to help clients gain credibility for their products (in regard to functional safety) in the international market.

If you'd like to know more about how this service can really benefit your organisation, please follow the link to our website where you'll find Sira's IEC 61508 brochure.

Quality Assurance

The continued monitoring of systems and processes in the manufacture of Ex products is an essential part of the overall Quality Assurance strategy. We offer a full range of Quality Assurance services, including ATEX and IECEx Product and Production Quality Assurance, Certification of Service Facilities involved in the repair and overhaul of Ex products, as well as technical auditing services. To complement these services, Sira also offers UKAS accredited ISO 9001: 2008 certification. We'll handle all of your Quality Assurance requirements in a cost-effective and efficient manner, so that you can declare compliance as quickly and as inexpensively as possible.

Laboratory Testing

Sira has a UKAS accredited laboratory with a range of state-of-the-art testing facilities which we use primarily to support our Product Certification activities, but which are also available to clients for other services. We can carry out experiments to test the effects of humidity and temperature exposure, for testing the integrity of enclosures for ingress protection and impact resistance, for testing light resistance of plastics, and for investigating the ability of an enclosure to withstand pressures induced by the internal ignition of an explosive gas. If you would like more information on these tests, or would like to find out about the other general tests we can undertake, please head directly to the Sira website.

Consultancy and Technical Support

Sira Test and Certification Ltd is able to draw upon over 25 years of industry experience to offer a consultancy and technical support service that is tailored to the individual requirements of each and every client. These services are designed to help you get the most out of your products, processes and plants.

Other Services

Sira did not become one of the UK's leading Test and Certification experts by being one-dimensional. In addition to the services listed above, we offer a range of complementary test, calibration and certification services for our industrial clients. We are able to calibrate acceleration transducers and charge amplifiers, gas detectors, vehicle exhaust analysers and diesel smoke meters, and we can undertake climatic testing and gas detector testing. We can also offer several MCERTS Certification services.

For more information, please get in touch directly.

Calibration

We are proud to be the first independent organisation to gain UKAS accreditation for accelerometer calibration and boast an incredible UKAS accredited calibration laboratory. From here we are able to provide various calibration services such as:

Accelerometer Calibration: Accelerometers (sinusoidal calibration, shock calibration, charge amplifiers, portable calibrators and voltage amplifiers).

Chemical: Exhaust gas testing instruments, flammable gas detectors and gas detection.

Optical: Optical density standard filters and optical transmission at 565nm.

We are the only company in the UK that can offer both UKAS accredited shock and sinusoidal calibration. We are widely respected for the quality of our work and our reliable, efficient services. Please contact us to find out more.

MCERTS Training

We are also pleased to offer MCERTS training alongside our environmental training courses. MCERTS is the Environment Agency’s Monitoring Certification Scheme which creates guidelines of the environmental measurements that meet the Agency’s requirements. Our environmental training course covers various MCERTS schemes and provides managers and operators with the knowledge needed to meet their environmental activity targets successfully. Our courses include the MCERTS Awareness (Monitoring Emissions to Air, Land and Water), MCERTS Level 1 – Competence Training and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Relating to Stack-Emission Monitoring. Please visit our website to download course programmes.

Competence Professional Scheme

We are pleased to present our Competence Professional Scheme. This scheme has been created to provide a recognised and UKAS accredited competence certificate that demonstrates that you have all of the necessary knowledge and experience needed to work in hazardous environments and industries. The Competence Professional Scheme follows a structure that is favoured by the HSE and is based on the international standard for competence IEC 17024. On the results of the examination, delegates will be awarded with one of four knowledge levels: Level 4 – Trainee, Level 3 – Supervised Practitioner, Level 2 – Practitioner or Level 1 – Expert.

IECEx Personnel Competence Scheme

The IECEx Peronnel Competence Scheme is designed to provide a globally recognised mark of competence for personnel working in hazardous areas and industries. It is essential for personnel to be completely competent when working in an explosive and hazardous environment. This scheme is principally designed for personnel who are working with explosion-protected and associated equipment for explosive atmospheres. It provides personnel with the competence to perform tasks within specified regulations and installation procedures. To find out more about our IECEx Personnel Competence Scheme please follow the link to our website or contact us at Sira Certification.