The IS-04Z1 certification programme covers IECEx, ATEX, UKEX and NEC 500 Class I Division 1, with national schemes following behind them. None of it is finished, and this page says plainly what is done, what is running and what has not started.
No certificate has been issued yet · target launch Q4 2026
SAMS Mobile does not hold an IECEx Certificate of Conformity, an ATEX EU-type examination certificate, a UKEX certificate, an NEC 500 listing, or any national approval for the IS-04Z1. Every one of them is in progress ahead of the Q4 2026 launch. If you find a page, a reseller listing or a marketplace entry that says otherwise, it is wrong, and we would like to know about it.
We state that first because certification is the one thing a buyer of a hazardous area phone cannot verify from a brochure, and because the market has a long history of loose language. “Ex rated”, “ATEX compliant” and “designed to ATEX standards” are not certification. A certificate is a numbered document issued by a named certification body against a named standard edition, with a schedule attached, and it either exists or it does not.
The ATEX and IECEx route is running with TÜV in Germany. Naming the body matters: a certificate is only as good as the organisation that issues it, and a European notified body is the evidence most operators outside Europe work from as well. It does not mean a certificate exists yet — it means you can see who is assessing the device and against what.
What SAMS can give you today is the certification schedule: which certificates are being sought, by which route, against which standards, and what stage each is at. That lets your HSE and engineering teams begin an equipment selection justification while our certification runs. When a certificate is issued we will publish its number and the full marking string. Until then, treat every specification on this site as a design target.
Buyers routinely ask for all three at once without needing all three. They are not competing quality grades but three legal and technical systems describing the same physics. Which you need is decided by where the device is used and which code your project was written to.
01
The international scheme, run under the IEC, based on the IEC 60079 series. An IECEx Certificate of Conformity is issued by an accredited certification body against a specific standard edition and carries a schedule listing the conditions of use. It is not a legal requirement anywhere on its own, but it is the technical evidence almost every other scheme is built on, which is why it is the first certificate we are pursuing.
02
The European legal regime, Directive 2014/34/EU, governing equipment for explosive atmospheres placed on the EU market. For Category 2 equipment it requires an EU-type examination by a notified body plus a production quality assurance notification, and results in an EU declaration of conformity, CE marking and the equipment marking string. The technical content overlaps IECEx heavily; the legal wrapper does not.
Great Britain’s equivalent, using approved bodies, the UKCA mark and a UK declaration of conformity. Northern Ireland continues to follow the EU regime. A device with an EU-type examination still needs the UK route completed separately, so we are running both.
04
The North American division system, used in the United States and, through the Canadian Electrical Code, in Canada. Class I Division 1 is the rough counterpart of Zone 1 and uses groups A to D rather than IIA to IIC, certified by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory. NEC 505 offers a zone alternative, but most American specifications are still written in divisions.
The marking is not decoration. II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4 tells a competent person the equipment group, category, protection concept, gas group and temperature class. Your classification drawing states what the area requires, the marking states what the equipment offers, and the two are compared line by line before a device goes through the gate.
A certificate is not an operator approval. Many large operators run their own engineering or telecoms review on top of national conformity, so a device can be fully certified and still be unusable on a particular site. Plan for two timelines.
Most national schemes accept an IECEx Certificate of Conformity plus a national test report or acceptance procedure, which is why the sequence matters: IECEx first, then the national routes in the order the launch markets demand. None of the following is complete, and completion dates are to be confirmed at launch.
A certificate is a short front sheet and a much more important annex called the schedule. The front sheet gives the certificate number, the issuing body, the applicant, the equipment name, the standards and editions applied, and the marking string. The schedule is where the engineering lives, and it decides whether a device is genuinely fit for your area.
The schedule describes the equipment and its variants, lists the standards and any deviations, and sets out the conditions of safe use, sometimes called special conditions and flagged by an X after the certificate number. Those conditions are binding. They are where you find restrictions on charging location, on which accessories and batteries may be used, on ambient temperature range, on electrostatic charge on plastic surfaces, and on what may be connected to a port. A device used outside its conditions of safe use is not a certified device.
The schedule also records the type and routine tests performed and, in an ATEX file, is accompanied by the production quality assurance notification confirming the factory is audited to build the certified design repeatedly. That is the point buyers most often miss: an Ex certificate covers a manufacturing arrangement as well as a design, which is why parts, batteries and repairs must come through authorised channels.
When the IS-04Z1 certificates are issued, the pack supplied to buyers will contain:
Every one of those is on completion of certification, because that is the truth today.
Apply these four checks to every hazardous area mobile phone you are offered, ours included. They take ten minutes and separate a compliant fleet from a finding at your next audit.
A supplier who cannot give you a number, an issuing body and a standard edition does not have a certificate. IECEx certificates are published in the online IECEx certificate system and anyone can look them up. Ours will be listed there when it is issued, and not before.
Check the ambient temperature range, charging restrictions, permitted accessories and the special conditions marked by an X. This is where a device that looks right on the front sheet turns out to be wrong for your area.
Take the zone, gas group and temperature class from your classification drawing and compare them to the marking string character by character. A T4 device does not satisfy a T5 requirement, and a IIB device does not satisfy a IIC area.
National conformity, radio registration and the operator’s own engineering approval are three different gates, and a device can pass one and fail another. Ask which are complete for your country and site, not in general.
Ask the team running the certification programme. You will get the current stage of each route in writing.
Ask a certification question →No. ATEX certification is in progress and no certificate has been issued. The marking target is II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4 and we will publish the certificate number and final marking string when the certificate exists.
It depends on where the device is used. ATEX is the legal requirement inside the European Union, UKEX in Great Britain, and NEC 500 or 505 in the United States. IECEx is not a legal requirement on its own but it is the international technical basis most national schemes accept, so it is usually the first certificate to ask any supplier for.
The programme is targeted at the Q4 2026 launch. We do not publish per-certificate dates because a certification body’s timetable is not ours to promise. The written schedule sent on request gives the current stage of each route.
The same idea in two systems. The IEC zone system splits gas areas into Zones 0, 1 and 2 by how often an explosive atmosphere is present. The North American division system uses Division 1 to cover roughly what Zones 0 and 1 cover together, with gas groups A to D instead of IIA to IIC. A device certified to one is not automatically acceptable under the other, which is why both routes are being run.
Tell us the country and we will say where it sits in the sequence. INMETRO, EAC Ex, CSA, NEPSI, ANZEx, KOSHA and TIIS are all planned after IECEx, because most of them build on the IECEx report.
Not in a classified area. Evaluation units placed before certification are for handling, MDM enrolment and application testing in safe areas only, and classified-area pilots begin once the certificate covering that area is issued. There is no exception to this.
Yes, and it surprises people. Opening an intrinsically safe device, or fitting a battery or accessory not named in the certificate schedule, takes it outside its certification. Service and battery replacement run through SAMS and authorised channels only.
Datasheets, the certification schedule and distributor enquiries all reach the same team.
