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Explosive hazardous areas can consist of a wide range of gases, vapors and dusts. These have some different properties and the severity and likelihood of an explosion is also different from each group. For each gas, you need to consider the ignition energy, spontaneous ignition temperature or pressure, flame temperature and weight to mention a few. Also, how the gas react when mixed with other gases such as oxygen matters. Therefore, engineers and scientists have devices a gas group system to classify the gases into groups, ranked by the severity and volatility. The groups are as follows:
Group
| Group | Representative Gases |
| I | All underground coal mining, firedamp (methane) |
| IIA | Industrial methane, propane, petrol and the majority of industrial Gases |
| IIB | Ethylene, coke oven gas and other industrial gases |
| IIC | Hydrogen, acetylene, carbon disulphide |
IIC is the most severe and volatile gases, meaning that these gases are the most easily ignited. Therefore, if your product is certified for IIC it also covers I, IIA and IIB. Hence, IIC is the safest and suitable for all subgroups. BARTEC PIXAVI has chosen to design and certify our devices with IIC certification, to ensure that our devices are safe to use in all environments, where all gases can be found. Read more about EPL – Equipment Protection Level, Hazardous Area Certifications as well as Zone 1 vs Zone 2 certification.