If one would read current articles on green technologies and sustainable materials, one would think these concepts are new to the world of manufacturing. FIRELOCK® Modular Vaults entered the arena of modular vault construction in 1982 and developed modular vault chambers that offer an extremely long lifespan, and added the benefit that they could be relocated and expanded. The core value was to add value for the vault owner.
When we wrote about our vault being relocatable, spell check did not recognize the word or our definition as a chamber that could be assembled, disassembled, relocated, and reassembled—again and again.
FIRELOCK® Modular vaults have been moved around the country like chess pieces. One vault in particular began its useful life in Memphis, then moved to Nashville, TN. Its next stop was Newark, NJ, and is now located in a records storage facility in Cary, NC. The modular panels, the vault door, and other fire vault components, maintain their useful life.
It is not unusual for the company that purchased the modular vault to go out of business, yet the value of the vault continued to make it attractive for future entities to continue storing vital records within the chamber.
Consider the alternative of vaults built of poured concrete or CMU-filled block, that after a time period serving as a vault end up being demolished with jackhammers, and even the vault door is destroyed because it was grouted in place and was too expensive to salvage. The materials end up in landfills. The onsite cement-type vaults are expensive to build and expensive to demolish.
One should also consider that concrete-type vaults are adequate for document storage,; but fail when utilized as a storage environment for vital microfilm, computer media, and historical records that all require environmental control and in a fire cannot rise above 125º F. without damaging fragile media.
FIRELOCK® Modular Vaults continue to evolve as they deliver a Laboratory Listing and magnetic shielding and now respond to the quest for sustainable materials by asking, “What took the rest of you so long to get here?“
Hugh Smith,
President of FIRELOCK®