Trade shows are one of the best parts of this job.

There's something that doesn't translate through a website or an email: the conversations that happen when you're standing in front of the equipment, talking through a real application with someone who's dealing with it every day. That's what shows are for, and it's why we keep showing up to them.

This year we've had the privilege of getting out to some of the most important events in our industry, connecting with customers, catching up with supplier partners, and seeing firsthand what's happening on the ground across oil & gas, wastewater, pharma, and petrochemical. Every show reminds us why we do this work and who we're doing it for.

To everyone who stopped by our booth, asked a question, picked up a product, or just said hello: thank you. Those conversations matter more than you might think. They shape what we stock, what we write about, and what we prioritize for the year ahead.

We're already looking ahead to next year, and we're planning a full show schedule. We'd love to see you out there. Keep an eye on our LinkedIn and website for show announcements as they're confirmed, and if there's an event you think we should be at, let us know.

At approximately 8:33 a.m. on August 17, 2026, a suspected lightning strike triggered a fire involving three natural gasoline storage tanks at the Explorer Pipeline facility in Glenpool, Oklahoma. Emergency crews responded to the area near Highway 75 and West 126th Street following reports of an explosion at the facility, with area schools placed under shelter-in-place orders and nearby residents evacuated.

Explorer Pipeline's Glenpool tank farm sits outside Tulsa on one of the nation's largest refined products pipeline systems. Explorer Pipeline confirmed that one of its tanks had been struck by lightning, sparking the incident, with the fire ultimately spreading to three tanks containing natural gasoline, a liquid blending component used to make finished gasoline and other products. No injuries were reported, and nearly 50 personnel were involved in the response.

Glenpool Fire Public Information Officer Mandy Vavrinak noted that this kind of fire cannot be fought with water alone; specialized foam, chemicals, and equipment are required to suppress and cool petroleum storage tank fires. Firefighters continued to apply foam to the tanks overnight to cool them and prevent reignition. Cleanup operations transitioned to Williams Fire and Hazard Control and U.S. Fire Pump, with vacuum equipment being used to safely remove wastewater from the site, while EPA air quality monitoring continued throughout.

This was not the first incident at Glenpool. There have been at least three previous tank fires at the site in years past, at least two of which were caused by lightning strikes. That last point is worth sitting with. Lightning is not a rare or unpredictable threat in the oil and gas industry; it's a known, recurring ignition source at tank farms and pipeline facilities across the country. The question isn't whether lightning will strike near flammable storage, but whether the protection systems in place are adequate when it does.

Takeaway: Lightning strike protection at flammable storage facilities is a hazardous area risk management issue, not just a structural one. If your site hasn't reviewed its lightning protection and bonding systems recently, this is a timely reminder to do so.

If your end customers include U.S. federal government agencies, this is worth flagging: i.safe MOBILE's IS945.1/.2, IS940.1/.2, IS540.1/.2, and IS440.1/.2 devices can now be manufactured in Germany, making them eligible for Trade Agreements Act (TAA) compliance.

Why it matters. The TAA restricts federal agencies to purchasing end products that are either U.S.-made or "substantially transformed" in a TAA-designated country. Germany qualifies as a designated country under the WTO Government Procurement Agreement. That means devices built there meet the sourcing requirement for federal procurement: GSA Schedule buys, government contracts, and any project where TAA compliance is a hard requirement, not a preference.

What's covered, and what isn't. German manufacturing is currently available for the .1 (Class I Division 1/Zone 1) and .2 (Class I Division 2/Zone 2) variants across the IS945, IS940, IS540, and IS440 lines. The rugged (.RG) versions of these devices are not included; they remain manufactured under the existing production setup and are not TAA compliant at this time.

Bottom line: If TAA compliance has been a blocker on a federal deal involving these device lines, it no longer has to be, as long as the .1 or .2 variant fits your application. Talk to Exloc about specifying German-built units for your next quote.

If you've ever looked at a piece of hazardous area equipment and seen a designation like "T3" or "T4" on the nameplate, you've encountered a temperature class. It's one of those spec sheet details that gets overlooked more often than it should, and getting it wrong has real consequences.

What a T-rating actually means. A temperature class tells you the maximum surface temperature that a piece of equipment can reach under normal operating conditions, including fault conditions. It has nothing to do with the ambient temperature the device can survive. It's specifically about how hot the outside surface of the device can get, because that surface is in contact with whatever atmosphere surrounds it. T1 permits the highest surface temperature (450°C), while T6 is the most restrictive: the device's surface can never exceed 85°C.

Why it matters: autoignition temperature. Every flammable gas, vapor, and dust has an autoignition temperature (AIT): the temperature at which it will ignite without a spark or flame. The T-rating on your equipment must be lower than the autoignition temperature of the substance present in your classified location. For example, hydrogen has an AIT of around 500°C, so a T1-rated device is acceptable. But gasoline has an AIT of around 280°C, meaning a T1 or T2 device would not be safe in a gasoline vapor atmosphere. You'd need at least T3.

The common mistake. The error people make isn't picking the wrong class entirely; it's not checking at all. A device rated T4 will carry that marking on its certification, but it doesn't automatically tell you whether T4 is appropriate for your specific site atmosphere. That's your responsibility to verify against the known autoignition temperatures of the substances present at your location. A mismatch here isn't a paperwork issue: if a device's surface can reach a temperature above the autoignition point of the surrounding atmosphere, you have a real ignition source inside your classified area.

The practical rule: Lower T-number = higher permitted surface temperature = less restrictive. Higher T-number = lower permitted surface temperature = more restrictive. When in doubt, go more restrictive. A T6-rated device is safe in any T-class application. A T1-rated device is only safe where the substance's AIT is above 450°C.

Note: this section rotates between leadership perspectives and real customer stories from the field. This issue features a perspective from Ed Beardshaw.

Every time I talk to a customer who's stuck trying to fit a piece of standard, non-certified electronics into a Zone 2 or Division 2 area, the conversation goes the same way: they assume there's no way to do it without a specially certified, heavier device or a complex protection system. Most of the time, that's not true. There's a simpler path: restricted breathing. It doesn't get talked about nearly enough.

The background. Restricted breathing, designated Ex nR under IEC 60079-15, is one of the protection concepts that falls under the broader "n" (non-sparking) family for Zone 2 and Division 2 areas. The idea is straightforward: a restricted breathing enclosure is built with tightly fitted joints and seals that severely limit how much air, and therefore how much of a hazardous atmosphere, can move in and out of the enclosure. Zone 2 and Division 2 areas only see a hazardous atmosphere present briefly and infrequently under normal operation, so an enclosure that "breathes" slowly enough simply doesn't let a release reach an internal ignition source before that release clears. No internal explosion containment needed, because the enclosure is never designed to see one.

Typical uses. This makes restricted breathing a natural fit for general-purpose electronics that were never designed to be hazardous-area rated in the first place: tablets, wireless networking equipment, cameras, and other COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) devices that a facility already knows and uses in unclassified areas.

Where this shows up in our product line. The clearest example is the UniCase: a restricted breathing case built specifically to house a standard, non-certified tablet and make it usable in Zone 2 areas without requiring a specially certified device. And here's the part that changes the conversation with most customers: the UniCase is designed to be installed by the customer, in-house. There's no need to ship the tablet out to a certification house or wait on a specialist installer; the customer can fit their own tablet into the case themselves, on their own timeline. That alone eliminates a step that trips up almost every other hazardous-area electronics project.

The UniCase is also a universal design. When a newer tablet model comes along, there's no need to buy a whole new case; the customer just swaps the insert to match the new device. That keeps the total cost of ownership down over the life of a fleet, since the case itself carries forward from one tablet generation to the next.

The same restricted breathing concept extends to wireless infrastructure with the iWAPXN3 wireless enclosure system, which houses off-the-shelf wireless access point hardware inside a restricted breathing enclosure for Zone 2/Division 2 deployment.

Why restricted breathing makes sense. It offers four real advantages for general-purpose and wireless electronics in Zone 2/Division 2:

1. Lightweight. No heavy flameproof castings needed.
2. Cost-effective. Simpler construction keeps material and manufacturing costs down.
3. RF-friendly. Can be built from non-metallic materials, letting radio signals pass through the housing. That's essential for anything wireless.
4. Easier to live with day to day. Simple lid access, with no purge or pressurization system to install, monitor, or wait on. That means faster access for maintenance and no downtime spent purging before the equipment can come back online.

The bottom line: if you're specifying general-purpose or wireless electronics for a Zone 2 or Division 2 area, restricted breathing is worth putting on the table, and with the UniCase, your team can be the one installing it.

By Ed Beardshaw, Managing Director, Exloc Instruments