Today, Pelican Engineering team handles ATEX and Class 1 Division 1 electronics design for downhole tools, wellhead monitors, and gas detection instruments that must survive real drilling environments, not just a lab bench.
Working with an established intrinsic safety design firm means you get a partner who understands where electronics innovation and hazardous area constraints genuinely conflict.
GAS_GROUP: IIC
TEMP_CLASS: T4 (135°C)
Ui 28V / Ii 93mA / Pi 0.65W
STATUS: WITHIN LIMITS
FAULT → SAFE STATE LATCHED
Hazardous location hardware is never just a simple checkbox you add hastily at the very end of a traditional design cycle. Instead, it fundamentally shapes every single critical engineering decision, ranging from precise component selection and advanced multi-layer board layout to robust enclosure strategy and rigorous testing protocols right from day one.
Our comprehensive ATEX PCB design services cover the complete technical scope required for any demanding hazardous area product need. We collaborate closely with your team to guarantee absolute regulatory compliance, exceptional field safety, and seamless market entry, effectively mitigating risks, preventing costly design iterations, and ensuring optimal long-term performance under extreme operational environments.
Design energy-limiting barriers, galvanic isolation, enclosures, and creepage to meet stringent safety standards.
Develop protective conformal coatings, encapsulations, component derating, and thermal analyses for reliable high-temperature performance.
Prepare complete engineering records to ensure efficient third-party notified body reviews and product approvals.
Design fail-safe firmware and robust sensor interfaces including 4-20mA, HART, Modbus, and wireless telemetry.
Design is only half the equation. A hazardous location product must also be built consistently, batch after batch, without drifting from what was certified. Our approach to CID1 certified PCB assembly focuses on three core pillars: strict component control, rigorous process repeatability, and absolute manufacturing traceability to ensure total safety.
We utilize strictly documented assembly procedures ensuring that every single manufactured board matches the certified reference design precisely, with absolutely no unapproved component substitutions allowed anywhere.
Provide full bill of materials traceability back to approved manufacturer part numbers, recognizing that strict certification connects directly to specific components, not just basic schematics.
Maintain a formal evaluation protocol to carefully determine whether any proposed component or manufacturing process change requires official recertification before reaching active production line operations.
Clients approach us with a concrete hazardous area challenge rather than an abstract spec sheet. Recent and recurring project types span specialized categories designed to solve real-world operational problems efficiently and safely.
Sensors account for severe shock, vibration, and thermal cycling alongside strict ignition-source requirements.
Fixed detectors in Zone 1 requiring intrinsically safe sensor circuits paired with low-power processing.
Remote telemetry units needing dual international approvals for deployment along critical pipeline corridors.
Battery-powered diagnostic tools where selection and charging circuitry remain critical for classified field safety.
Navigating hazardous area compliance requires proactive planning and precision. Overlooking foundational standards early in your product lifecycle frequently results in costly redesigns, unexpected compliance failures, and severe delays before you can safely bring your industrial equipment to market.
Integrating safety standards from day one eliminates the need for expensive structural redesigns, ensuring your energy levels and enclosures align seamlessly with regulatory expectations before physical prototypes are built.
Choosing between protection methods like flameproof enclosures or intrinsic safety prevents unnecessary manufacturing expenses, matching the ideal engineering approach directly to your product's operational requirements.
Maintaining strict component oversight and comprehensive technical files prevents invalid certifications, protecting your production line from audit failures and eliminating common delays caused by incomplete testing data.
Strategy dictates engineering and material costs.
Dual market certifications reduce long-term expenses.
Run sizes impact component sourcing efficiency.
Ready to optimize your project budget?
A hazardous location design isn’t finished when the board works on the bench; the paper trail matters just as much for certification and long-term manufacturing.
Receive complete design files, technical documentation, and pre-compliance test records organized to support third-party certification and future regulatory reviews.
Records Get detailed change logs, approved BOMs, and revision tracking to maintain certification integrity and simplify future manufacturing updates.
Although oil and gas remain a major application, hazardous location of electronics is essential across many industries where combustible materials or explosive atmospheres exist. Common industries include:
Reliable electronics support safe monitoring, automation, and control within facilities handling volatile hydrocarbons daily.
Engineered systems help maintain safe operations around hazardous chemicals, combustible vapors, and reactive substances.
Durable electronics withstand harsh underground conditions while supporting worker safety and reliable equipment performance continuously.
Explosion-resistant electronic systems improve safety where combustible dust creates significant operational hazards during processing.
Specialized electronics support biogas, hydrogen, and other energy facilities operating within classified hazardous environments safely.
Hazardous-rated control systems enable dependable automation where flammable gases, vapors, or dust may be present.
The international certification scheme many manufacturers use as a base, since it's recognized or accepted as a reference point in a wide range of countries outside North America and the EU.
The North American framework behind Class I Division 1 and Division 2 classifications, which our team designs against for US and Canadian deployments.
Required for equipment placed on the EU/UK market, covering both mechanical and electrical equipment intended for use in explosive atmospheres.
Intrinsic safety (Ex i), flameproof (Ex d), encapsulation (Ex m), and increased safety (Ex e) each impose different design constraints, we help clients choose the concept that fits their product's size, power budget, and cost target rather than defaulting to the most expensive option.
Certification is usually the part of the project clients worry about most, so it’s worth laying out plainly. Our hazardous location electronics certification process generally follows this sequence:
Define the hazardous area classification, gas group, temperature class, and target certification standards.
Develop the electronics, PCB, and enclosure around the required explosion protection method.
Test thermal performance, energy limits, and ingress protection before formal certification.
Prepare the technical documentation and coordinate submissions with the notified body or NRTL.
Finalise the certified design for manufacturing with controlled processes to maintain certification compliance.
Pelican Engineering is a registered professional engineering firm in the state of Louisiana, available for consultation in electronic product development and all aspects of electrical engineering design and manufacturing.
Launched as Palmer Engineering Firm, focusing on embedded prototypes for the oil and gas industry from a small shared facility.
Transitioned to an independent 18,000 sq ft facility in Lafayette, LA. Acquired full PCB assembly lines to support mass manufacturing.
Expanded operations into a new 85,000 sq ft building to meet growing production demands and further scale turnkey capabilities.
Operating three full manufacturing lines, producing over 100,000 circuit boards annually as an industry-leading hardware partner.
We operate to the highest industrial standards, providing you with confidence in our manufacturing reliability, engineering precision, and regulatory adherence.
Pelican Engineering proudly holds ISO 9001 certification, underscoring our unwavering dedication to upholding rigorous quality standards. This assures customers of our commitment to consistently delivering products of the highest quality.
By adhering to the stringent guidelines, we ensure that every aspect of our business—from customer interactions to product development—is meticulously managed and continuously improved.
Our manufacturing staff holds IPC-A-610 certification, a testament to their expertise in adhering to the highest industry standards for electronic assemblies. It governs the acceptability of quality and workmanship.
This certification is crucial for our clients as it ensures that our manufacturing processes consistently meet or exceed industry benchmarks for reliability, functionality, and safety.
Pelican Engineering proudly holds ISO 9001 certification, underscoring our unwavering dedication to upholding rigorous quality standards. This assures customers of our commitment to consistently delivering products of the highest quality.
This prestigious certification demonstrates their advanced expertise, commitment to professional standards, and adherence to ethical practices, ensuring precision, compliance, and safety in our work.
Explosion protection certification recognized across the EU, UK, and international markets, covering equipment used in classified gas and dust atmospheres.
Hardware engineered to meet North American electrical safety standards, supporting Class I Division 1 approval alongside UL, cUL, and CSA requirements.
Environmentally compliant component sourcing and lead-free manufacturing processes, supporting hazardous location hardware sold into regulated international export markets today.
EMI and EMC tested wireless telemetry and communication modules, ensuring certified equipment doesn't interfere with other instrumentation inside hazardous areas.
Set your area classification, gas group, and temperature class to see the protection concepts and certification routes we would typically scope against.
Yes. Our team designs the PCB, enclosure strategy, and embedded firmware together, since fail-safe behavior in a hazardous location product depends on how hardware and software interact under fault conditions.
We don’t issue certificates ourselves; that’s the role of a notified body or NRTL. We design the product and build the technical documentation package, so certification testing goes smoothly for the first time.
We need your target zone or division classification, gas group, temperature class, and the markets you’re selling into. From there we can scope the design and certification path.
Timelines vary by complexity, but most projects run several months from initial design through pre-compliance testing, with certification review adding additional time depending on the notified body’s queue.
Yes, we run in-house PCB assembly and low-to-mid volume production, so your certified design moves directly into manufacturing without switching vendors or re-qualifying a new contract manufacturer.
Yes, intrinsically safe circuit design with energy-limiting barriers and galvanic isolation is a core part of our hazardous location electronics work.
Chemical processing, mining, grain handling, and any facility with flammable gases, vapors, or combustible dust in the air can require similar hazardous location electronics design.
Send us your zone or division classification, gas group, temperature class, and target markets. An engineer—not a salesperson—will follow up.
