Making tanks, sites and people safer in an earthquake

Will Lomax, Onguard’s MD, explains why its technology is lab-tested and earthquake proven An earthquake at a storage tank site can be devastating. The extent of the damage depends, at least in part, on what and how much is in a given tank. Loss of the contents and the structure are always an economic problem for the owner, and if said contents are toxic, it becomes an environmental and safety issue. Onguard’s managing director Will Lomax has seen the damage firsthand. A 2013 earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale that devastated New Zealand’s wine country started him thinking about earthquake protection for tanks. That gave birth to Onguard and its system of anchors that protect tanks by providing controlled yielding in both tension and compression throughout an earthquake and its aftershocks. After developing and installing that system of anchors, it was put to the test just three years later. A 2016 New Zealand quake showed that tanks protected by Onguard’s systems were unfazed by the quake, while those that were not protected suffered great damage. In recent months Lomax has continued moving forward, improving the anchors, preparing to launch a monitoring...