An explosion proof mobile phone for German chemical plants has to work in two quite different settings: the single-company Verbund of BASF at Ludwigshafen, and the multi-tenant Chempark sites at Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen, alongside Chemiepark Marl and Industriepark Höchst. This page is for the Ex-Schutz officers, instrumentation engineers and works-council members who decide what may be carried into them, and it describes what the IS-04Z1 is designed for ahead of its Q4 2026 launch. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · ATEX programme in progress
Ludwigshafen covers around 10 km² and roughly 200 plants, run by one company and tied together by pipelines. The point for a handset is that a single walk from the shift office can pass from a cracker area, through a pipe bridge, into a solvent plant and on to a polymer packing hall, each with its own entry in the Explosionsschutzdokument. Chempark, Chemiepark Marl and Industriepark Höchst are organised differently: an infrastructure operator runs the utilities, security, fire brigade and logistics, while separate companies produce on the same land under their own rules.
The zone decides whether a device may be carried at all. These are the points that tend to come up when a chemical-park evaluation reads the datasheet.
The gas marking target is II 2 G Ex ib IIC T4. Group IIC is the most demanding gas group and covers hydrogen, which is why a handset aimed at a cracker or hydrogenation area is designed to that group rather than to IIA.
T4 limits surface temperature to 135 °C. Some process substances ignite well below that and call for T5 or T6, so the temperature class in the Explosionsschutzdokument entry is checked per plant, not once for the site.
Zone 21 dust protection is part of the same certification programme, so a handset that goes from a solvent plant to a bagging hall does not need swapping at the door.
A 4,000 mAh battery has to last a shift where the nearest charging point is outside the zone. Four-constellation GNSS gives a position in open areas; under pipe racks and inside buildings, expect to rely on the site network.
Android Enterprise management from an existing MDM console lets a site operator or contractor keep tenant policies separate, and a 50 MP camera can be switched off by policy where a plant restricts photography.
Operators walk set routes, log readings and report leaks to a control room that may be a kilometre away. The same handset carries the round list, a photograph of a weeping flange and a line to the park fire brigade.
Units shut down on a planned cycle that runs to years, then hundreds of Fremdfirmen crews arrive for a few weeks. Each crew needs a handset enrolled for the job pack and Freigabe.
In a Chempark or Chemiepark the park operator and the tenant both have a say. A leak at a boundary raises the question of whose alarm number, whose permit and whose policy applies on the device.
On the product side, ATEX 2014/34/EU is the framework, and a certificate from a notified body is the evidence. The operator side is where evaluations spend their time: under BetrSichV and TRBS 2152 the operator decides the zones and records the equipment selection in the Explosionsschutzdokument, so procurement will want the certificate number and full marking string once they exist.
Beyond that, a site operator or large producer usually runs its own supplier and contractor registration. We have not verified any specific park's programme and do not describe one; ask the operator's procurement and HSE teams what they require before any unit enters a plant.
No. It is pre-launch and ATEX and IECEx certification are in progress ahead of the Q4 2026 launch. Until a certificate exists it is not to be taken into a classified area, and any unit offered for evaluation is for documentation, network and policy testing in safe areas.
Not automatically. The operator typically sets site-wide access and safety rules, while each tenant company decides what its own people may carry and buys through its own procurement.
In Germany the works council normally has co-determination rights over technical systems that can monitor employees, so location features and MDM policies usually need a Betriebsvereinbarung. Draft that agreement alongside the Ex-Schutz review rather than after it.
Only if its marking is at least as demanding as the classification of each plant it enters. The Explosionsschutzdokument for each plant states the zone, gas group and temperature class, and the handset is checked against the strictest of them on the route.
Tell us the site, the zone and gas group, and roughly how many handsets. The SAMS team replies by email with the datasheet and the certification schedule for Germany. The IS-04Z1 is pre-launch and certification is in progress, so there is no list price yet; indicative pricing is issued in writing against a stated quantity and site.
Tell us the zone, gas group and operator. We will send the datasheet and the certification schedule for your market.
