Because they are modular in nature, the construction of blast-resistant buildings happens before they ever get to your site. This is one of the greatest benefits of modular construction.
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In short, this means there&#;s much less of an impact on your site operations. There&#;s no period of downtime for the space the building will occupy. There&#;s no working around the mess of a construction site. There&#;s no re-routing of trucks.
During the construction phase, the customer will get updates as needed, including progress photos. There&#;s no way to nail down how long the construction of a blast-resistant building will take because each project is different. It&#;s all dependent on the construction queue of the vendor, the size of the building, and the complexity of design and elements.
A typical build, for example, a simple three-plex or smaller, may take 16-20 weeks from the time drawings are approved. Other complex projects will take more time. Your vendor should be able to talk in more detail about this, based on the specs of your individual project. There are occasionally ways to expedite builds, but it&#;s not a good practice to rely on that to happen.
The last thing to happen while the building is still at the vendor site is the factory acceptance test. The building is put together at the facility, just like it would be on the customer&#;s site. Some customers may choose to do a final onsite walk-through; others may give approval based on photos of the finalized building. This can typically be done in a day.
Once the final walk-through has happened, there will be no time wasted before the build is on the road. If the building is a multi-plex, it could take several trucks to get it to its final destination.
Some companies have their own transportation fleet, while others rely on outside sources. And some will use a combination of their own trucks and third-party transportation sources.
According to the project managers at RedGuard, working through the design process without delays is the biggest challenge in managing blast-resistant building projects.
Designing a building requires a lot of information and input from the customer. Sometimes there is information that is not available during the bid phase.
Examples of some information that may not be available before the PO is issued are things like the actual electrical load requirements for equipment that is supplied by the customer, the expected use for each room in the building, and final details like color or finish selections. Waiting on these things can slow down the initial design process.
Another hold-up is that sometimes the person who&#;s been involved on the customer side, the purchasing agent, isn&#;t the end-user of the blast-resistant building. Once the end-users become involved, they may have valuable information or knowledge of the project that will require changes during the initial review. For this reason, it&#;s helpful when decision-makers and the building&#;s users are both involved during the bid process, so all details are resolved prior to project award.
Change orders are a fact of life in the management of blast-resistant building projects, so it&#;s not the worst-case scenario when they come up, but avoiding them will always save you time and money. Following the advice here, as well as keeping the lines of communication open, and the team informed, will serve you well.
At RedGuard, we design and build blast-resistant buildings and have been doing it since . All the related details are on our minds every day, for at least 40 hours a week, but we know that our customers have more to think about. That&#;s why our team of experts, in Sales, Estimating, Engineering, and Project Management, are ready and willing to answer your questions and consult on your project.
No matter how much experience you have with capital projects or turnarounds, let&#;s start talking about your goals and see if it makes sense to put a RedGuard blast-resistant modular building on your worksite.
No two hazardous worksites are alike, so no two blast-resistant projects are alike. Our expert team can help you start planning your project to save you time, money, and, most importantly, lives
With this in mind, it is important to note that blast-tested buildings are usually given specific psi ratings. Knowing what rating your facility needs, will depend on many factors, such as the type of structure, the likelihood that it will experience a blast event, and its proximity to different assets, equipment, and materials. For example, a laboratory BRB that is near a blowdown stack might need an 8 psi rating, while a structure that is located closer to the perimeter of your facility might only need a 4 or 5 psi rating. (These are hypothetical and don't represent actual recommendations.)
When thinking about blast-shielding products, you might believe that different materials can be used interchangeably. However, each industrial process or scenario is different. Shielding materials respond differently to deformation, shock, pressure waves, and ballistic impact.
That is why every shielding product should be specially designed for the specific application it will be used for, so its material characteristics are appropriately protective against the potential threat.
Different blast-resistant materials are better suited for particular applications. Is there one material that is &#;best&#; for blast resistance? The short answer is: it depends. Keep reading to understand why.
Shielding enclosures can be made with the following materials:
Steel is probably the most common. These enclosures are usually called &#;boom boxes or rooms&#;, that are welded together and designed to mitigate a blast. Some of these structures can have polycarbonate windows.
At TotalShield, we design and manufacture our shielding solutions with polycarbonate panels mounted in a modular framing system made from steel and aluminum.
As you prepare your next testing procedure, you may ask yourself what material your blast containment enclosure should be constructed from. Metal, polycarbonate, fiberglass? As we have mentioned, you have plenty of options.
Operations and testing can vary widely depending on the process, equipment, and projected end results, and various transparent and non-transparent materials can be used for impact and blast protection. All shielding materials have characteristics, capabilities and advantages that might suit one application more than another. This depends on the design parameters for impact protection:
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If visibility is not needed, for example, a steel enclosure or a Kevlar Shielding Blanket may be a suitable option. Size and space requirements can also determine the material used. Another consideration is whether the enclosure needs to be mobile (weight is a consideration) or can be fixed in place.
Once again, the application of such a product will determine the proper shielding material.
The TotalShield test archive allows our engineers to determine the best shielding solutions. We check the available data (obtained over 25 years in partnership with leading research institutes) or conduct new tests for novel scenarios. We also extend our shielding solutions&#; impact and blast resistance capabilities by utilizing proprietary framing, manufacturing, and assembly techniques that enhance the blast resistance of the materials used.
Choosing the right shielding material is of the utmost importance when it comes to the safety of your employees.
Polycarbonate is known by various trade names, including Lexan, Palsun, Merlon, and Tuffak&#;. In the United States, it is often referred to synonymously as Lexan due to the popularity of the trade name as marketed by the GE corporation. This resin thermoplastic is used in everything, from race car windshields to kitchenware.
On the other hand, acrylic sheeting is most often referred to by its trade name plexiglass and is a transparent thermoplastic homopolymer. Acrylic is used in a variety of products, from windows to commercial signs and displays.
Safety glass is a broad term including different types of glass manufactured to make them less likely to break. When safety glass does break, it should also have features that make it less likely to cause harm. In the context of safety enclosures, laminate glass is the most common form of safety glass used. Laminated glass is made of two or more panes of annealed glass joined together by a layer of plastic. Some types of laminated glass have multiple alternating layers of plastic and glass.
We do not use acrylic or safety glass in any of our products because they are dramatically less impact and blast-resistant than polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is 250 times more impact resistant than safety glass and 30 times more impact resistant than acrylic. In addition, polycarbonate has better heat and chemical resistance than acrylic and is much lighter than safety glass.
Polycarbonate can withstand blasts of over 900 psi and is about 200 times stronger than steel by weight, and is also more flexible than steel. This feature allows polycarbonate to flex and return to its original shape, dissipating impact energy.
Unlike steel, polycarbonate also offers a lighter-weight solution with visual clarity. Its clear property allows constant monitoring of your machinery operations without compromising your staff&#;s safety, making it one of the most effective materials against impact and blast.
However, while polycarbonate has qualities that steel does not, it is not always a better option than steel. For example, it does not perform well when rigidly held, such as bolting. Its performance is also affected when holes have been drilled through.
This is why our proprietary framing system does not rigidly pin or pinch the polycarbonate panels but instead holds the panel in a continuous gasketed channel. In addition, when intrusions need to occur into a TotalShield enclosure, we provide steel access panels that can be drilled without compromising the enclosure&#;s integrity.
Our polycarbonate panels are modular, making them a non-permanent structure that can be more easily moved than a welded steel structure. The modularity also allows for easy material replacement if damage occurs.
As mentioned previously, we prefer polycarbonate panels to all other transparent materials because no other material can match its impact resistance.
In the following video, you can view the TotalShield&#;s tests we conducted for our HETShield:
Here, we used a BR polycarbonate 1.25&#; thick sheet, with a projectile of steel plug 1.75&#; long x 1&#; diameter .297 lbs at 177.7 m/s
We&#;ve also made a test using a 1.25&#; thick bullet resistant acrylic panel, using the same parameters for the projectile, this time at 173.7 m/s
As you can see, under similar conditions polycarbonate panels proved to be a higher impact-resistant solution than acrylic.
In summary, the advantages of polycarbonate include the following:
Not all enclosure materials are created equal. We have spent 25 years evaluating the material and designs in our TotalShield product line to ensure they have the optimal attributes of:
When requesting a shielded enclosure from TotalShield, you can be assured that we&#;ll work with you to understand your testing requirements and to design a shielding solution that is right for your business.
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