Many areas of industry are subject to European Directive 1999/92/EC (ATEX 137). This directive and the respective standards must be observed in the chemical industry, the timber industry and the food and beverage industry, for example. Some less-obvious sectors such as the printing industry and the pharmaceutical industry are also affected by this directive.

Safe drives are also required for sectors where potentially explosive air/gas or air/dust mixtures develop only occasionally (zone 1/zone 21), or rarely or briefly (zone 2/zone 22). Especially for these tasks and in order to be able to use servo drive technology in these areas as well, SEW-EURODRIVE has qualified servo gear units and servomotors according to the 94/9/EC Directive.