IEC TS 60079-48:2023

IEC TS 60079-48 ®
Edition 1.0 2023-11
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Explosive atmospheres –
Part 48: Portable or Personal Electronic Equipment – Guide for the use of
equipment without a certificate for use in Hazardous Areas

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IEC TS 60079-48 ®
Edition 1.0 2023-11
TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION
Explosive atmospheres –
Part 48: Portable or Personal Electronic Equipment – Guide for the use of

equipment without a certificate for use in Hazardous Areas

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 29.260.20  ISBN 978-2-8322-7887-1

– 2 – IEC TS 60079-48:2023 © IEC 2023
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative References . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 General . 8
5 Requirements for PEPs . 9
5.1 General . 9
5.2 Additional requirements for PEP 1c, EPL Gc and Dc . 10
5.3 Additional requirements for PEP 1b, EPL Gb and Db . 10
5.4 Additional requirements for PEP 2c, EPL Gc and Dc . 11
6 Administrative controls . 11
6.1 General . 11
6.2 Additional requirements for PEP 2c . 12
7 Drop test . 12
Annex A (informative) Examples of equipment which could be assigned a PEP . 13
Bibliography . 15

Table 1 – Application of PEP assessed portable or personal electrical equipment . 9
Table A.1 – Possible PEP assignment . 13

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERES –
Part 48: Portable or Personal Electronic Equipment – Guide for the use
of equipment without a certificate for use in Hazardous Areas

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
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6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a)
patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in
respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which
may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent
the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch or
www.iso.org/patents. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
IEC TS 60079-48 has been prepared by subcommittee 31J: Classification of hazardous areas
and installation requirements, of IEC technical committee 31: Equipment for explosive
atmospheres. It is a Technical Specification.
The text of this Technical Specification is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
31J/347/DTS 31J/352/RVDTS
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Specification is English.

– 4 – IEC TS 60079-48:2023 © IEC 2023
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.
A list of all parts in the IEC 60079 series, published under the general title Explosive
atmospheres, can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
INTRODUCTION
Suitable portable or personal equipment might not be commercially available with a certificate
for use in hazardous areas, but might be needed for operational or health and safety reasons
or could commonly be used as personal items. The acceptance of equipment without a
certificate for use in hazardous areas would depend on the user organization policies and risk
or needs assessment.
This document is intended to assist users in understanding the potential for ignition from such
equipment. This guidance could be further limited by regulations in some countries.
This document addresses hazards relevant to portable and personal electronic equipment such
as, spark ignition, hot surfaces, mechanically generated sparks, static electricity, radio
frequency, ultrasonic energy, and optical radiation.

– 6 – IEC TS 60079-48:2023 © IEC 2023
EXPLOSIVE ATMOSPHERES –
Part 48: Portable or Personal Electronic Equipment – Guide for the use
of equipment without a certificate for use in Hazardous Areas

1 Scope
This part of IEC 60079, which is a Technical Specification, provides guidance for an owner or
operator for the use of portable or personal electronic equipment to be used in hazardous areas
requiring Equipment Protection Level (EPL) Gb, Gc, Db, or Dc that are not otherwise
commercially available with a certificate.
NOTE 1 This document is not intended to be used for certification purposes for equipment to be used in hazardous
areas.
NOTE 2 Examples of some of these types of equipment are provided in Annex A.
NOTE 3 EPLs are derived from the hazardous area zones based on an additional risk assessment. The default
relationship without a risk assessment in IEC 60079-14 is Zone 1 as EPL Gb, Zone 2 as EPL Gc, Zone 21 as EPL
Db and Zone 22 as EPL Dc.
This document does not apply to:
• equipment that is electrically connected to fixed equipment or fixed wiring during use in the
hazardous area, for example a lead light connected to the premises wiring system by a plug
and socket,
• portable or personal equipment with a certificate for use in a hazardous area,
• transportable equipment,
• portable or personal equipment used in Group I applications,
• battery powered tools, such as drills and saws,
• portable or personal equipment used in areas requiring EPL Ga or Da equipment, or,
• medical devices.
NOTE 4 Devices which are implanted in the body are not exposed to atmosphere and are therefore not subject to
hazardous area requirements, for example, pacemakers. The risk from other medical devices external to the body is
beyond the scope of this document.
This document does not address other considerations involving the use of portable or personal
electronic equipment for other aspects of safety, for example, creation of a distraction from
important work tasks, radio frequency interference with measurement and control equipment,
or medical issues.
This document supplements the guidance in IEC 60079-14 regarding the use of personal or
portable equipment without a certificate for use in hazardous areas.
NOTE 5 IEC 60079-14 requires that equipment with a certificate for hazardous areas should be used where possible
and equipment without a certificate for hazardous areas should be subject to a risk assessment.
NOTE 6 It is not a requirement of this document that equipment is evaluated for fault conditions since this would
be beyond the ability of the end user assessment.
2 Normative References
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all
...