Radiant heat and hot surfaces
Hot steel and furnace casings raise ambient temperature around an operator. The temperature class on the certificate (T4 is the target) and the certified ambient range are the two figures a plant engineer checks first.
Sweden · SSAB
Explosion proof mobile phone for SSAB in Sweden
SSAB makes steel at Luleå, Oxelösund and Borlänge, and is changing how it makes it, with electric arc furnaces and hydrogen-based ironmaking in its published plans. This page is for the maintenance, process and HSE teams deciding what an explosion proof mobile phone has to do on those sites. The IS-04Z1 is designed for Zone 1 and Zone 21 and is still pre-launch, with ATEX certification in progress. The IS-04Z1 is designed around intrinsic safety rather than a flameproof enclosure.
Launching Q4 2026 · certification programme in progress
Local approvalATEXATEX 2014/34/EU · ELSÄK-FS 2016:2 and AFS 2023:7 · in progress
AvailabilityQ4 2026via authorised distributors
The sites · Luleå, Oxelösund and Borlänge
Process gas and dust at SSAB Luleå, Oxelösund and Borlänge
An integrated steel plant is a gas works as well as a mill. Blast furnace gas is a toxic, flammable fuel gas that is piped around the site, and coke oven gas is rich in hydrogen. Luleå and Oxelösund make iron in blast furnaces and carry those gases, with coal and coke dust in the raw materials yards. Borlänge is a rolling and finishing site, where furnaces and annealing lines use fuel gas and sometimes hydrogen-bearing atmospheres. SSAB has published its plan to replace the blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces, working with LKAB and Vattenfall on hydrogen-based ironmaking through HYBRIT. Each step brings changes to the area classification drawings, and hydrogen is group IIC, which is why the IS-04Z1 targets IIC.
Sites and processes
- Luleå
- Blast furnace, coke ovens and steelmaking on the Bothnian coast, close to the HYBRIT pilot.
- Oxelösund
- Blast furnaces and heavy plate on the Baltic coast, with a planned electric arc furnace.
- Borlänge
- Rolling, coating and finishing of strip steel in Dalarna.
- Raw material yards
- Coal, coke and ore handled by conveyor and ship at the harbours.
- Gas networks
- Blast furnace gas, coke oven gas and natural gas or LPG piped across each site.
Classified and sensitive areas
- Coke ovens and gas cleaning
- Hydrogen-rich gas, tar and benzole, classified around each by-product plant.
- Blast furnace top and gas mains
- Carbon monoxide risk as well as flammability, which a phone does not address.
- Coal injection and coke handling
- Combustible dust where fine coal is stored, milled or conveyed.
- Annealing and heat treatment lines
- Furnaces using fuel gas and protective atmospheres, with local zones.
- Hydrogen systems
- New piping and storage for transition projects, group IIC.
Built for local conditions
What a steel plant does to a handset
Steel plants are hot, loud, dusty and spread over large areas, and the Swedish ones add a cold winter. These conditions come up whenever steel maintenance teams talk about handsets.
IP ratingIP68
Battery4,000 mAh
Camera50 MP
OSAndroid 16
Dust that gets into everything
Coal, mill scale and iron oxide dust settle on every surface. IP68 sealing and rugged build are the design answer, and Zone 21 is part of the target for coal dust areas.
Toxic gas that a phone cannot detect
Carbon monoxide from process gas is the major risk on a blast furnace site, and an intrinsically safe phone is not a gas detector. Keep the personal monitor and use the handset to report and call.
Contractors and rolling shutdowns
Mills stop on planned outages with large contractor crews. Android Enterprise enrolment lets a site issue and wipe handsets by contractor, and the existing MDM console manages them alongside the rest of the estate.
Use cases · SSAB
Where the IS-04Z1 explosion proof mobile phone goes to work.
Ironmaking01
Gas main and furnace rounds
An operator walks a route through the gas mains, the furnace area and the cast house, photographing leaks and calling the control room with one device in the classified area.
Transition02
Hydrogen and electric arc furnace construction
A construction site that adds hydrogen piping to a steelworks needs contractors who can be enrolled, restricted and tracked while commissioning is under way.
Maintenance03
Annealing line and mill outages
During an outage, a maintenance planner sends photographs of burner trains and instrumentation to the control room, and signs off permits on the same handset.
Work and approval
Outages, contractors and the approval step
Steel plants run continuously and stop for planned outages, when furnace relines and mill rebuilds bring large contractor crews on site. Between outages, operators do rounds on a fixed route, often outdoors and often alone, which makes a handset that can call and report a safety-relevant tool.
SSAB sets its own requirements for equipment suppliers and this page does not claim any relationship with the company. Ask the SSAB procurement and HSE teams what a supplier file needs, and expect questions about the marking, gas group, temperature class and service route. The IS-04Z1 certificates have not been issued yet.
Questions · SSAB
Frequently asked questions
Does an intrinsically safe phone protect against carbon monoxide?
No. It prevents the phone from igniting a flammable atmosphere. It does not detect carbon monoxide or other toxic gases, so the personal gas monitor remains mandatory on a blast furnace site.
Why would a steelworks need IIC equipment?
Coke oven gas and the hydrogen planned for transition projects are hydrogen-rich, which is group IIC. Specifying IIC now avoids replacing handsets as hydrogen arrives.
Will the electric arc furnace change what is classified?
It changes the picture, since gas systems and coal handling shrink in some areas while hydrogen and electrical equipment grow in others. The site classification drawing decides the zone for any given location.
Enquiry · SSAB
Ask about the IS-04Z1 for SSAB, Sweden
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 Sweden. 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.
Enquiry · SSAB
Launching Q4 2026
Evaluating the IS-04Z1 for this site?
Tell us the zone, gas group and operator. We will send the datasheet and the certification schedule for your market.