Cleaning ATEX Zones on Ships
Keeping decks, holds and tanks clean is routine work, until the zone is classed as an explosive atmosphere. Here's what "ATEX" means at sea, why ordinary washers are a risk, and how the job is done safely.
What makes a zone "ATEX" on a vessel
ATEX is the European framework for equipment used in explosive atmospheres: places where flammable gas, vapour or dust can be present. On a ship, the obvious candidates are cargo tanks and holds that carry oil, chemicals or other flammable products, and the spaces around them.
What surprises a lot of operators is how far that net now reaches. Since the 2019–2020 international rules cut the sulphur content allowed in marine fuel, vessels burning heavy fuel oil or running on LNG are themselves treated as having ATEX zones. In practice that pulls in oil and chemical tankers, LNG and gas carriers, drilling ships, and a growing share of conventional tonnage. As Graco's Marine Division has noted, naval vessels that need certified equipment for the same reason.
Why a standard pressure washer is the wrong tool
The cleaning itself is ordinary: wash down a deck, strip oil contamination, pre-clean a cargo tank before the next cargo, knock off barnacles and marine growth. The hazard is the equipment. An electric or petrol-driven washer can create a spark or a hot surface, and in a space that has held oil, chemicals or fuel that is enough to ignite residual vapour. It only has to happen once.
An ATEX-approved, air-operated washer removes the ignition source entirely: it runs on the ship's compressed air, with no electrics at the working end. That's the whole point: it cleans the vessels and spaces that other washers simply aren't allowed near.
The typical jobs
Ordinary cleaning tasks, made safe by ATEX-approved, air-operated equipment.
- Cargo-tank pre-cleaning: essential before a vessel takes on a different cargo.
- Deck & structure wash-down: removing oil contamination from decks, deck equipment and structures.
- Barnacle & marine-growth removal: high-pressure cleaning of fouled surfaces.
- Scrubber and ballast/bilge cleaning: keeping emission-control and ballast systems serviceable.
When it's profiling, not washing
For heavier work, stripping old coatings or tackling corrosion before re-painting, the same ATEX logic applies, and a vapour-abrasive blaster is the safer, lower-dust alternative to dry blasting. That's a surface-prep job rather than a wash, covered on our surface preparation page.
The equipment for this job
For ATEX-zone washing, Graco's Hydra-Clean™ air-operated pressure washers are the purpose-built answer: ATEX-approved, running on ship's air, in medium- and high-pressure builds. Where the job is profiling rather than washing, the EcoQuip 2™ vapour blaster cuts dust by up to 92%.
Hydra-Clean washers → EcoQuip blasting → All products →
Prefer to talk? Call (+45) 6916 2400 or email tech@sepcotech.com — or send your ShipServ RFQ to TN 317545.
Drawing on Graco Marine Division commentary (Louis de Hillerin) on ATEX cleaning and the move to treat fuel-oil and LNG vessels as ATEX zones. Original source: graco.com: How to keep ATEX zones of ships clean. SepcoTech supplies the Graco marine range against ShipServ TN 317545.