Purchasing a blast-resistant building is no small responsibility to undertake. It involves months of planning (sometimes more than a year), depending on the scope of the project. Part of the due diligence on an investment of this size and magnitude is not only looking for benefits but also in looking at the challenges that one might encounter.

RedGuard will be exhibiting at ABC of Southeast Texas' 25th Outdoor Extravaganza on October 24, at Ford Park in Beaumont, Texas.

Every industry has its jargon, and after a while, it’s easy to forget that not everyone understands the terminology that we often hear on an everyday basis. This is especially true if you’ve just started in your career and haven't learned it all yet. Even those who have worked in an industry for a long time may not want to admit they don’t know the meaning of a common acronym, even if they understand its usage.

This content was created for and originally published in the May 2019 issue of Chemical Engineering. It was written by Bryan Bulling, one of RedGuard's subject matter experts and our Northeastern US Regional Area Manager. In March of 2019, two separate explosions and fires in the Houston area reminded those of us who work in, or close to the chemical industry, of the risks and dangers present in chemical facilities. Chemical plants in Crosby and Deer Park, Texas both witnessed explosions and fires that resulted in injuries, damage, environmental impact, and negative public blowback. In both cases, it took several hours or more for crews to regain control over the incidents. In the meantime, nearby residents, schools, and businesses hunkered down under shelter-in-place orders. Both facilities are reportedly named in lawsuits.

In an industry that is as young as that of blast-resistant buildings, much of the terminology is still very new. This industry only came to be in 2005, after an explosion at a Texas City refinery that killed 15 people and injured nearly 200.

RedGuard will exhibit at the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants' Association (VPPPA) Safety+ National Symposium, held August 27 - August 30 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA. You will find RedGuard at booth #441.

In the oil and gas industry, there are no federal laws or regulations that control what precautions a facility has to take to maintain a protective environment in the event of an explosion on their site. (OSHA dictates a Process Hazard Analysis every five years, but leaves the methods of fulfilling that open to interpretation.)

This article was originally published in September of 2012. It has been updated to reflect current industry findings. In the blast-resistant building industry, we toss around the term "response level" all the time and assume everyone knows what it means. And maybe everyone here does, but the difference between a low response building and a high response building can mean the difference between life and death, so it's worth a closer look, even if you already know the basics. And, if you don't yet know the basics? it might be a good idea to read up on blast resistant buildings, from cost to common issues, to questions to ask before you buy. We've written the ultimate guide to blast-resistant buildings.

When scrutinizing blast-resistant structures, one of the first considerations to make will be the type of resilient structure that you need. You should always make decisions based on the particular needs of your facility, based on determinations from your facility siting study or similar recommended practices.

Some jobs are inherently dangerous, and there might not be anything you can do to remove the dangerous elements. Those who work in manufacturing, chemical processing plants, or oil and gas refineries, understand that.

The following article was originally published in the June/July 2018 issue of BIC magazine. It was written by Bryan Bulling, one of RedGuard's subject matter experts and our Northeastern US Regional Area Manager. As a building designer, I watched some of last year’s disturbing events unfold with both great sadness and professional interest — Hurricanes Harvey and Irma; the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida; and the seemingly endless list of cyber-related breaches. These all revealed areas where we can and should begin to address new safety and security measures. During this critical moment in environmental health and safety, I would like to offer some topics and insights that might prompt engineers and designers to improve the safety and security for the occupants of your buildings.

What Affects the Price of a Blast Resistant Building? If hazardous areas are part of life on your worksite, you’ve probably arrived here to determine what the real costs are associated with getting outfitted for safety. For many, a facility siting study indicates the need for blast-resistant buildings, or BRBs, to protect your team and valuable assets in the event of an explosion. Many factors can affect the cost of a blast resistant building, such as whether you lease standard units, lease modified standard units, or choose to have your BRB custom built. Here are some points to address when getting a bid from a manufacturer:

When a blast event occurs at a facility in the oil and gas industry, blackouts, disorientation, concussions, internal bleeding, and even fatalities can occur. While the latter components are widely published in the aftermath of an event, what is less known is the far-reaching and negative financial impacts of both personal injuries and structural damage. Discovering the impact of a blast event requires an in-depth look at the trickle-down and oftentimes continuous financial costs of the incident.

Can you afford not to have a blast-resistant building on-site? By their very nature, companies in the oil and gas sector handle highly volatile materials. As such, these companies should take the steps needed to protect both their personnel and facilities from the extensive damage that can occur during a blast event. Fortunately, a blast-resistant building (which is also referred to as a blast-resistant module, BRB, or BRM), can be the very solution that companies need to protect personnel and mission critical equipment during and after a blast event. The risks during a major blast event to human lives and bodies is high and arguably one of the most important considerations when investing in a blast resistant structure.

RedGuard will exhibit at the Voluntary Protection Programs Participants' Association (VPPPA) Safety+ National Symposium, held August 28 - August 31 at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, TN. You can find RedGuard at booth #129.

What's in a name? Would a blast-resistant module by any other name be just as safe? Apologies for the bad Shakespearean reference, but that aside, "What's in a name?" is often used to imply that the names of things do not affect what they really are.

It’s a pleasure when a client gives you free rein to run with a project, show what your product is truly capable of and design what the client really needs. When a client gave RedGuard such an opportunity, we were able to push the envelope for blast-resistant building design.

This article was originally published in September of 2017. It has been updated to reflect current industry findings. Facility siting studies can help manage the risks associated with working in hazardous environments and can help prevent accidents resulting in major financial loss, injuries, and lost lives.

If you've landed on this page to specifically answer the question, "What is a blast resistant modular building (BRM)?" then you've come to the right place. RedGuard has had an interest in blast resistant buildings since 2005, when the industry began to emerge in the aftermath of a blast event that killed 15 people and injured hundreds more. We've made it our business to protect lives, AND to offer a wealth of information and guidance about blast resistant buildings.

When working on a design/build project, a firm grasp of its intended purpose is critical to get the project’s design and estimate on the right track early. Recently, I participated in a discussion with a gas facility’s project team to establish design parameters for a control room project. As I took notes, I noticed that the terms “shelter-in-place” and “safe haven” were being used interchangeably to describe the building’s attributes by members of the team, as if they were the same. I immediately recognized the need to research the designations to educate the team on the unique characteristics of each. After some research, here’s what I found.

One of the benefits of advertising in trade magazines is the added benefit of occasionally being asked to submit guest articles to those publications. It’s a great way to let the experts in your organization shine and to build a name for yourself when it comes to industry expertise. We enjoy this benefit and, and we realize that so do companies that sell products similar to ours. In those articles, the writer isn’t allowed to use specific product names or even mention the affiliated company, except for a final note at the end where the reader can seek more information. It's important to note that while the articles are intended to be written without an advertising focus, they are still written by those with a vested interest in selling a product. What does this have to do with polyurea coatings?

Imagine the scenario:

Blast-resistant building design gets more fun every year. The original designs conceived by RedGuard in 2005 were “bare bones,” which still have endless applications — from guard shacks to tool cribs. The latest blast-resistant building design interiors look more like luxury offices than metal buildings, with new variations emerging all the time. With corrugated metal as our basic building block, there’s no end to what we can do.

RedGuard will exhibit at the 2017 Reliability and Maintenance Conference and Expo, held May 23-26 in New Orleans, LA. You can find RedGuard at booth #755.

RedGuard will exhibit at the 2017 National Occupational & Process Safety Conference, held May 17-18 in New Orleans, LA. You can find RedGuard at booth #200.

Much of the activity at a refinery involves planned turnarounds in order to ensure safety, perform preventative maintenance, renovation or necessary upgrades to facilities or technology. This allows a facility to make sure they are doing things as safely as possible, to stay competitive in the industry and to meet government regulations. A turnaround involves the careful coordination of many people. It could involve a logistics team, turnaround manager, planners, engineers, and contract workers in many skilled trades—all to ensure that turnarounds happen safely and successfully, meaning in the least amount of time, and using labor wisely and resources as conservatively as possible.

Wichita, Kan. – Following an onsite evaluation of their Production Center and interviews with team members on December 6, RedGuard has been awarded a gold certificate from SafeStart, a behavioral-based safety training program proven to successfully reduce workforce injuries. The gold status celebrates RedGuard’s safety success based on achieving milestones for training, sustainability and integration of the program into the workplace.

Safety can often mean different things to different people. Even within the same company, one person’s opinion on what’s considered “safe” may prove to be completely different from that of the person they work beside each and every day. To ensure that everyone is always on the same page, it’s important that companies institute an in-depth corporate safety program that will develop common beliefs and supports a culture that—above all—values the well-being of everyone who steps foot within the operation.

Wichita, Kan. – RedGuard has announced a joint venture with Specialist Services Group to provide blast-resistant and ballistic modules to the oil and gas, petrochemical and defense industries in the Middle East, Europe and southeast Asia.

When a major refiner came to RedGuard in 2005 asking us to design a blast-resistant building (BRB), we knew immediately this was the reason we were in business. We saw the potential for creating an important product for safety developed around this new type of building that could massively cut construction costs for refiners, yet do a better job than traditional buildings when it came to protecting personnel.

Let’s face it. Petrochemical management comes with more than its share of headaches. From coordinating subcontractor work schedules to jumping through compliance hoops, it can feel like you’re running through quicksand. But with proper planning and the right vendors, there are ways to make it easier. At RedGuard, we’re doing everything we can to streamline the process of buying and leasing blast-resistant buildings (BRBs). We want to make blast resistance easy.

A turnaround is a lot like a military exercise. You have to deploy specialized units of personnel onto different parts of the field, furnish them with the right equipment, keep them fed, facilitate a chain of command, reorganize resources into constantly changing configurations of efficiency and, most importantly, keep your people alive. One of your enemies in this battle is time because lost productivity can cost millions of dollars per day.

We all have too many plates spinning when the turnaround season shifts into full swing, so it’s important to plan early for the additional and replacement buildings you’ll need at your facility during this busy time. You should organize the blast-resistant buildings that you will lease many months ahead to save on shipping costs and assure you’ll have the units you need on time. But leased blast-resistant units for turnarounds are only part of the planning picture. Early in the year is the time to take a look at your entire strategy for blast protection, including the permanent units you plan to purchase.

Blast-resistant modular buildings are becoming standard fixtures in petrochemical operations around the world, replacing traditional buildings at a lower cost and with a shorter construction time. But the technology is still new enough that we get a lot of questions on the specifics of incorporating these life-saving structures into operations. Most people are surprised at how simple it is. It begins with a site study.

A custom home builder doesn’t toss a stack of plans in front of you and tell you to pick one. You tell them what you want, maybe sketching out some floor plan ideas and a list of options and amenities. Then they work with you to turn it into a viable architectural design.

When our first lease units rolled off the production line years ago, blast-resistant buildings (BRBs) were pretty standard. Our first goal was to design the best blast protection in the world — which we did — but features and options were very limited in the beginning. Our next step was to find new ways to meet as many different client needs as possible, in terms of size, options, amenities and regulatory compliance. RedGuard’s LeaseFleet, currently the largest lease-ready fleet of BRBs of its kind, offers more options than we ever dreamed of when we helped launch this industry.

On June 4, RedGuard elevated the blast-resistant building (BRB) industry to a new level — ISO 9001:2008 certification. After eight years of industry leadership, RedGuard’s management recognized the importance of this crucial next step toward making blast zones safer.

RedGuard has spent many years focusing on how to build the best blast-resistant building (BRB) in the world, but we’ve also been listening to our customers and learning how they operate during the transition to safer and more productive work spaces. In the early stages of the BRB industry, our customers usually specified the requirements of the products we built for them but, today, we’re making the process easier by taking on increasing amounts of the operational planning that goes into adding blast protection to a petrochemical facility. Once you give us a site study, we can take significant portions of the process off your shoulders. The result is a low-impact, money-saving BRB installation that integrates seamlessly with your operation, allowing you to concentrate on the rest of your job.

A lot of myths still surround the use of blast-resistant buildings (BRBs) as traditional building replacements. If you’re planning construction at your facility, this article could help you save hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention countless lives.

As the petrochemical industry returns to a regular maintenance cycle after the cutbacks of 2009 and 2010, turnaround planning is ramping up nationwide. Now that the use of office trailers is declining in blast zones, demand for blast-resistant buildings (BRBs) is headed for an all-time high. At RedGuard, we’ve been aggressively increasing our inventory of lease unit BRBs in anticipation of this upswing. Still, nationwide demand is expected to exceed supply, so this should be one of the first calls made by turnaround planners, if they hope to maximize all the benefits of work site blast protection.

This article was originally published in 2012. It has been updated to reflect current findings consistent with today's blast-resistant buildings and the petrochemical industry. Upsizing and downsizing are part of life in a petrochemical refinery. That could mean capital expansions that reposition limited staff and resources, or turnarounds that change the face of an entire operation. It’s crucial to work through these changes with minimum interruption to business flow. That means the importance of supplier selection is a top priority. Safety is a bigger concern than ever, and it’s important to choose trustworthy partners during these precarious times. Your choice of suppliers for temporary, blast-resistant buildings is an important one. So, what factors should be considered when choosing a supplier? Let's consider.

Everyone talks about safety, as we should in the petrochemical industry, but there are some gray areas in blast zone safety ratings. So, it’s equally important to talk about reliability. Yes, a building can be rated for a certain zone, but if it’s rated “high response” (which means “high damage”) in that zone, there will almost certainly be casualties if people are in the unit during a blast event.

There was a time when the science of blast protection was poorly understood. We built petrochemical control centers out of reinforced concrete or masonry blocks because it was the best-known construction method, but it was never a good solution to the challenge of protecting the people inside. Now we have a new option, and the industry has aggressively adopted it.

There are no college degrees in blast engineering. This specialty can only be learned in the “real world,” and even there, only a small handful of people have the experience to be considered experts. When RedGuard decided to start making blast-resistant buildings in 2005, we talked to everyone who knew anything about the subject, and one name quickly rose to the top of the list: Ali Sari, Ph.D., PE.

The petrochemical industry is rapidly responding to the fact that too many blast zones contain buildings that can’t withstand a blast. While some companies are still trying to tackle the problem with traditional construction methods, there is a widespread movement toward the use of modular, metal buildings because of their proven ability to protect personnel.

Blast-resistant building design is a relatively unexplored frontier. For one thing, very little research has been done on the actual effects of blasts on various types of structures. Then there are aesthetic and psychological considerations. In addition to making a building safe, it’s important to create interior spaces that are functional and provide appropriate levels of comfort for personnel.

In 2005, my team was called in to investigate the Texas City, Texas, refinery disaster. I’ll never forget what I saw there — where wood-frame office trailers had stood, only splinters remained. Fifteen people died because they were housed in those trailers. All I could think was there has to be a better way.