Installation & Commissioning

Correctly specified equipment, incorrectly installed, provides no protection. A cable gland that compromises the flameproof path, a detector mounted where the dispersion study says gas will never reach, an earth loop that renders an intrinsically safe circuit unsafe — these are installation faults that no amount of design quality prevents.

ZE-Tronics installs and commissions fire and gas detection, alarm and suppression systems in classified hazardous areas, using CompEx-certified engineers, and demonstrates through documented testing that the installed system does exactly what the cause-and-effect matrix says it should.

Hazardous area installation

Installation in classified areas is governed by IEC 60079-14 and is a discipline in its own right.

• Equipment installation — detectors, sounders, beacons, call points, panels and suppression hardware mounted per the design drawings, at the orientation and elevation the coverage study requires. Mounting position is not a field decision
• Ex-certified cable entry — correct gland selection for the protection concept and cable type, correct compound filling, correct thread engagement. Flameproof path integrity is compromised by errors that look trivial
• Cable installation — armoured and screened cable to specification, segregated from power circuits, correct bend radii and support intervals
• Intrinsically safe circuits — cable parameter verification against barrier certification, correct segregation and identification, earthing per the IS system design
• Earthing and bonding — equipotential bonding, screen termination at the correct single point, verified continuity and resistance

Inspection and testing

Initial inspection to IEC 60079-17 — detailed inspection of every item of Ex equipment, recorded on schedules that become your baseline for all future periodic inspection.

Loop checking — every field device verified end to end: correct terminations, correct addressing, correct signal at the panel, correct tag identification. This is where wiring errors surface, and it is the step most often compressed when a project runs late.

Detector functional testing — every detector tested with the appropriate stimulus. Gas detectors with certified reference gas at the correct concentration. Flame detectors with a certified test source at rated distance.

Cause-and-effect functional testing — the complete matrix executed row by row. Every initiating device activated, every executive action verified: correct alarms, outputs, trips, suppression release logic, voting behaviour and time delays.

This is the test that matters, and it is the one most often sampled rather than executed in full when schedule pressure builds. We test every row, and the completed matrix with signatures is your evidence.

Fault and degraded mode testing — detector disconnection, power failure, communication loss, battery backup autonomy. How a safety system behaves when part of it has failed is the behaviour that decides outcomes on a bad day.

Site Acceptance Testing

SAT is the formal demonstration, witnessed by you and where applicable by a third-party authority, that the installed system meets specification. We prepare the procedure from the approved matrix, execute it in your presence, record every result, track punch-list items to closure and issue a signed SAT dossier.

Handover documentation

• As-built drawings reflecting the actual installation, not the design intent
• Completed loop check records
• Ex equipment inspection schedules per IEC 60079-17
• Calibration certificates for every detector supplied
• Signed cause-and-effect functional test records
• SAT report with punch list and closure evidence
• O&M manuals, recommended spares list, proof-test procedures and intervals

Handover documentation is not administrative overhead. It is the baseline against which every future inspection, modification and audit will be assessed. If it is wrong at handover, it stays wrong for the asset’s life.

Working in live plant

Most work is brownfield, inside an operating facility — permit-to-work discipline, hot work and confined space controls, isolation management, and most critically fire and gas system impairment planning. Taking detection offline creates a window of reduced protection that must be formally managed, time-bounded and compensated for. We work to ISO 45001 and hold licences for fire safety system installation and maintenance.