Cables and Cable Glands for Hazardous Locations: Copyright Material IEEE, Paper No. PCIC-2018-42

This paper explores the various standards and requirements for the certification, selection, use, and installation of cables and cable glands used in explosive gas atmospheres throughout the world. International and North American requirements for cables and cable glands will be examined and compared. In North America, the National Electrical Code (NEC) and Canadian Electrical Code, Part I (CEC) define the requirements for the types of cable that are permitted to be used in different hazardous (classified) locations. In North America, standards exist for certifying cables for use in hazardous locations. These standards have now evolved to allow for additional cable types beyond metal clad (MC) and TECK 90 cables that are primarily used. In Canada, a new edition (2018) of the Hazardous Location Cable and Cable Gland standard has been published, and this should help to clarify the intended range of cable types that could potentially be approved for hazardous locations in Canada. In the United States (US), the NEC defines the types of cables that can be used in hazardous locations, and UL 2225 provides the means to approve Hazardous Location (HL) cables for the US. The International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC) on the other hand does not require cables to be specifically approved for explosive gas or dust atmospheres and instead only provides guidance within IEC 60079–14 on the selection of cables. In all jurisdictions, cable glands for use in explosive gas atmospheres are required to be approved for the location they are being installed in or with a method of protection suitable for the location that they are being installed in, but there are differences in the various standards and requirements.