NATIONAL FOREWORD

This Indian Standard (Part 10/Sec 2) (First Revision) which is identical with IEC 60079-10-2 : 2015 ‘Explosive atmospheres — Part 10-2: Classification of areas — Explosive dust atmospheres’ issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) was adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards on the recommendation of the Electrical Apparatus for Explosive Atmospheres Sectional Committee and approval of the Electrotechnical Division Council. Dusts, as defined in this standard, are hazardous because when they are dispersed in air by any means, they may form potentially explosive atmospheres. Furthermore, layers of dust may ignite and act as ignition sources for an explosive atmosphere.

This standard gives guidance on the identification and classification of areas where such hazards from dust can arise. It sets out the essential criteria against which the ignition hazards can be assessed and gives guidance on the design and control parameters which can be used in order to reduce such a hazard. General and special criteria are given, with examples, for the procedure used to identify and classify areas. This standard contains an informative Annex A giving practical examples for classifying areas.

This standard was originally published in 2015 as IS/IEC 60079-10-2 : 2009 ‘Explosive atmospheres : Part 10 Classification of areas, Section 2 Combustible dust atmospheres’. The first revision of this standard has been undertaken to align it with the latest version of IEC 60079-10-2.

The text of IEC Standard has been approved as suitable for publication as an Indian Standard without deviations. Certain conventions are, however, not identical to those used in Indian Standards. Attention is particularly drawn to the following:

a) Wherever the words ‘International Standard’ appear referring to this standard, they should be read as ‘Indian Standard’.

b) Comma (,) has been used as a decimal marker while in Indian Standards, the current practice is to use a point (.) as the decimal marker.