Intrinsically Safe communications
Intrinsically Safe Two Way Radios for Hazardous Environments
Intrinsic Safety (IS) is not just a requirement, but imperative in many environments. Radios generate heat and conduct electricity, which can be dangerous when additional electrical, heat or fire risks are present. IS equipment is designed to maximise safety in these environments, both by reducing the risk of explosion or combustion and also by introducing additional features to further enhance safety. For example, emergency calling enables immediate responses to any threats, ensuring urgent safety communications are prioritised and acted upon swiftly.
Certified for Classified Areas
What an intrinsically safe rating actually certifies.
Intrinsic safety is a design principle, not a toughness rating. A certified radio is built so the electrical energy it can release, in normal use and in fault conditions, stays below the level that would ignite the atmosphere around it. Digicom Wireless supplies IECEx and ATEX certified radios across Australia.
IECEx and ATEX
Two certification schemes, one underlying standard
Both schemes trace back to the same IEC 60079 series of standards for explosive atmospheres, which is why the zone definitions and the protection concepts line up. IECEx is the international scheme, with certificates issued by accredited bodies and published on a public register. ATEX is the European framework, and equipment carries the Ex marking and category under it.
In Australian practice you will see both markings on the same handheld. What matters when you specify is the zone the equipment is rated for, the gas group, the temperature class and the protection level, all of which appear on the label.
Audit Readiness
The question an auditor asks is about evidence
Under Australian WHS legislation the duty holder has to manage risk so far as is reasonably practicable. Where a site has classified a location as a hazardous area, carrying an uncertified transmitter into it is a foreseeable and documented risk, and the exposure is not theoretical: it shows up the moment somebody asks for the equipment register.
That is the practical reason to get this right. A certified fleet with matched accessories, clear labelling and a servicing record is something you can put in front of an auditor. A mixed bin of radios and third party headsets is not. We supply the fleet and keep it traceable through our repair centre and servicing.
- Motorola Solutions Platinum Channel Partner
- ARCIA & ACMA accredited
- ACMA type-approved equipment only
The Chain of Compliance
Three ways a certified fleet quietly stops being certified.
None of these involve buying the wrong radio. They happen months after the purchase order closes, usually with the best intentions, and they are what turns up when somebody reviews the fleet.
One uncertified accessory breaks the whole assembly
The rating belongs to the radio, its battery, its antenna, its carry case and its audio accessory together, as a single approved assembly. Clip on a headset from the general catalogue because it was in the store and the unit no longer holds the approval it was bought under. The label on the radio still says otherwise, which is what makes this one dangerous.
Batteries changed or charged in the wrong place
Charging equipment is generally not certified for use in a hazardous area, and swapping a battery inside a classified zone defeats the protection concept the radio was designed around. Both need to happen outside the boundary. Where crews work long shifts the fix is spare certified batteries and a charging point in a safe area, not a workaround at the face.
No record of which unit is which
Certified and general purpose radios in the same charging bank look alike from three metres away. Without a register, colour coding and service records, nobody can demonstrate that the radio issued to a Zone 1 job was the right one. We set the fleet up so the answer is on paper before it is asked for.
Request a CallbackCertified Handhelds
The three units we supply into classified areas.
Each of these is supplied as a certified assembly, with the battery, antenna and audio accessories matched to the approval. Ask us for the accessory schedule alongside the quote so purchasing does not order around it later. More options sit in the Motorola range and the products index.
MOTOTRBO R7Ex Non-Display
Current generation certified portable with no screen. The simplest unit to train out across a large workforce, and the one we recommend where the radio is operated by feel through gloves.
Motorola DP4801 Ex
The established certified display portable. Widely deployed in Australian process and resources fleets, so it is often the right choice where you are adding units to an existing DP4801 Ex fleet rather than starting fresh.
MOTOTRBO R7Ex Display
Certified portable with a full display and keypad, for roles that need talkgroup selection, caller identity and text on screen. The usual pick for supervisors, permit holders and emergency response officers.
Worker Protection Features
Protecting the person, not just the atmosphere.
Certification stops the radio becoming an ignition source. It does nothing about the operator who collapses on a gauging round with no one within earshot. That is a separate set of features, and on a certified handheld they are ordered at the same time as the radio because retrofitting them later means touching the approved assembly.
A lone worker timer prompts the carrier on a set interval and raises an alarm when nobody acknowledges. Man-down triggers on tilt or on the absence of movement. Both send the radio identity, and a position where GPS tracking is enabled and the sky is visible. What turns that into a response is where the alarm lands, so we route it through emergency alarm management to a staffed console rather than to a channel nobody is monitoring. The rest of the feature set sits under advanced radio solutions.
- Lone worker timers with configurable prompt and escalation
- Man-down triggered by tilt angle or absence of movement
- Emergency button that opens a channel without a menu
- Radio identity and position attached to every alert
- Alerts escalated to a staffed console, not an unmonitored channel
- Optional voice recording for post-incident review
Zone Classification
Zone 0, Zone 1 and Zone 2, set side by side.
The three gas zones, the ATEX category and IECEx protection level that goes with each, the marking you should expect to read off the label, and where each one turns up in Australian industry.
This table covers gas atmospheres. Combustible dust is classified separately as Zone 20, Zone 21 and Zone 22, and the equipment marking carries a D rather than a G. Grain handling, flour milling, sugar and bulk solids sites should check both schemes, because a radio rated for gas is not automatically rated for dust.
Where these zones sit on a producing plant is set out on our oil and gas facilities page. For coverage below ground, where certification is only half the problem, see mine sites. Your own hazardous area classification documents are what determine the boundary in either case.
Certification Questions
The detail behind the Ex marking.
Standards, accessories, charging and audit evidence. These are the questions that decide whether a fleet holds up under review.
What is the difference between IECEx and ATEX? Two schemes, one set of underlying standards, and why radios carry both marks.
IECEx is the international certification scheme. Certificates are issued by accredited bodies against the IEC 60079 series and published on a public register, so a certificate number can be checked independently. ATEX is the European framework covering equipment for potentially explosive atmospheres, and equipment placed on that market carries the Ex mark and an equipment category.
Because both trace back to the same technical standards, the zone definitions, gas groups and temperature classes line up. That is why the certified handhelds we supply generally carry both marks on the same label, and why a fleet specified against one will usually satisfy a specification written against the other. What you compare is the zone, the protection level and the gas group, not the scheme name.
Is a certified radio legally required in a classified area? Where the obligation actually comes from, and how to answer it on your own site.
There is no rule that names two way radios specifically. The obligation comes from the duty under Australian WHS legislation to eliminate or minimise risk so far as is reasonably practicable, applied through the standards and procedures your site adopts for equipment in hazardous areas.
In practice, once an area has been classified, your own procedures will state what may be taken into it, and an uncertified transmitter will not meet them. Treat it as a site compliance question with a legal consequence attached, check it against your hazardous area documents, and get advice from your HSE function rather than from a supplier. What we can tell you is what the equipment is certified for.
Does fitting a standard headset really void the rating? The accessory chain, and why the label on the radio stops being accurate.
Yes. The certificate covers the radio together with the specific batteries, antennas, carry accessories and audio accessories listed against it. Connecting an audio accessory that is not on that list creates a combination that was never assessed, and the assessed condition is the only thing the approval covers.
The practical risk is that nothing looks wrong. The Ex marking is still moulded into the radio and the crew has no reason to question it. That is why we supply the accessory schedule with the quote, keep certified spares traceable through the repair centre, and recommend storing certified accessories separately from general stock.
Can a certified radio be charged inside the hazardous area? Charging, battery swaps and how to plan a long shift around the rule.
No. Charging equipment is not certified for use in a classified area, and removing or fitting a battery inside one defeats the protection the radio depends on. Both operations belong in a non-hazardous area, and the equipment instructions will say so.
For long shifts the answer is planning rather than a workaround: enough certified spare batteries in circulation, a charging bank sited in a safe area, and a swap point built into the shift routine. We size the battery pool against roster length when we quote a fleet.
What is the difference between intrinsically safe and explosion proof? Two different protection concepts, and which one applies to a handheld.
They solve the same problem in opposite directions. Intrinsic safety limits the electrical and thermal energy in the circuit so that it cannot ignite the atmosphere, even under fault conditions. Flameproof protection, marked Ex d, accepts that an ignition may occur inside the enclosure and builds the enclosure so it cannot propagate outside.
Portable radios use intrinsic safety, because it suits low power battery equipment that people carry and does not require a heavy enclosure. Flameproof suits fixed equipment such as motors and switchgear. The phrase explosion proof gets used loosely for both, so read the marking on the label rather than the description in the catalogue.
How do we demonstrate the fleet is compliant during an audit? The evidence pack: register, marking, accessory schedule and service records.
With records, not assurances. What holds up is a register of certified units by serial number, the certificate references for the radios and their accessories, a clear physical distinction between certified and general purpose stock, and a service history showing the units have been maintained by someone competent to do it.
We can set that up when the fleet is supplied and maintain it through servicing, including for hired units where a contractor fleet comes and goes. If your existing fleet has drifted, start with a free system evaluation and we will tell you what is missing.
Can certified radios include man-down, lone worker and GPS? What is available on certified platforms and when it has to be ordered.
Yes. The certified platforms we supply carry the same worker safety feature set as their general purpose equivalents: lone worker timers, man-down triggered on tilt or lack of movement, an emergency button, and GPS tracking where the unit is specified with it and the sky is visible.
Specify them with the original order. Adding a feature later can mean a different variant or a licence against each radio, and anything that touches the approved assembly is not a change you want to be making informally. Tell us how isolated the work is and we will match the configuration to it.
Verticals
Industries that operate in explosive atmospheres.
Certification is the common thread. What changes between these sectors is which zone dominates, whether the hazard is gas or dust, and how isolated the people carrying the radio are. See the full industry sectors index for the rest.
Oil and Gas, Upstream and Downstream
Wellsites, gathering stations, refineries, LNG trains and export terminals. The classified envelope covers a large share of the operating area, so certified stock is the default rather than the exception. Detail on oil and gas facilities.
Underground and Surface Mining
Underground coal is the clearest case, along with gas-affected hard rock workings and parts of surface processing. Coverage is the harder half of the problem underground, which we cover on mine sites.
Chemical and Petrochemical Processing
Solvent handling, reactor halls, drumming and blending lines. Many of these sites carry several different gas groups and temperature classes across one plant, so the marking on the radio has to be matched to the worst case, not the average.
Fuel Storage and Distribution
Bulk terminals, aviation fuel farms, depots and the tanker fleets that run between them. Certified units for the gantry and the bund, general purpose radios for the yard, and cellular push-to-talk for drivers on the road. See transport and distribution fleets.
Grain Handling and Bulk Solids
Silos, elevators, flour and sugar milling. The hazard here is combustible dust rather than gas, classified as Zone 20, 21 and 22, with a separate equipment marking. Check the dust rating specifically before ordering against a gas specification.
Wastewater and Utilities
Digesters, biogas plant, sludge handling, pump stations and confined space entry. Often overlooked because the sites are small and unstaffed, which is exactly why the lone worker and man-down configuration matters more here than anywhere else.
Specify It Once
Get the certification right before the order goes in
Tell us the zone, the gas or dust group and how the crews work, and we will specify the radios, the batteries and the audio as one certified package with the paperwork to match. Short-term contractor fleets can come from radio hire instead, and you can read more about how we work on our about us page.