National Supervision and Inspection Center for Explosion Protection and Safety of Instrumentation (NEPSI)

NEPSI made great efforts in international exchange and cooperation to promote China’s testing and verification technology of explosion protection to catch up with the world advanced level, and thereby turn itself to be a world famous establishment. In 1984, NEPSI sent its technical personnel to SIRA for training. In 1991, NEPSI sent its expert to U.S. to exchange instrument explosion protection and verification technology with Factory Mutual Research Cooperation (FMRC) and signed an agreement of mutual recognition of testing and certification of electrical apparatus used in hazardous area. In September 1997, NEPSI sent an expert to Germany to do cooperative research on explosion protection technology at Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) for three months. NEPSI then signed a cooperation declaration to establish cooperative relationship of mutual recognition with PTB in the field of explosion protection related testing and verification, through in-depth technical exchanges concerning standard requirements, testing methods and operating procedures. The cooperation has been brought into the scope of the general cooperation agreement between China State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision and PTB.

NEPSI’s experts also visited or established cooperative relations with Laboratoire Central des Industries Electriques (LCIE) of France, TIIS of Japan, TESTSAFE and SIMTARS of Australia respectively.

All these bilateral exchanges and co-operation have laid a solid foundation for NEPSI’s development, and made it possible not only for the Chinese manufacturers of explosion-protected equipment to apply for foreign approval at home, but also for the manufacturers to apply for two organizations’ approval at one organization simultaneously. Chinese manufacturers can apply directly to NEPSI for FM or PTB approval, and vice versa, manufacturers in U.S. or Germany can apply to FM or PTB for NEPSI approval.