← All industries ★ Tank & Terminal ★

Blinding, hot work and the permit that should wait for the isolation.

What lockout looks like here

Terminal work is line isolation: blinds, double block and bleed, and proving the blind is in before the permit issues. A nozzle weld on a storage tank is a hot-work permit, often a confined-space permit, and a lockout on the product lines, the mixer and the vapour system.

Contractors do most of it, on a permit-to-work system the terminal owns. The lockout and the permit have to be one record with one sequence: isolate, verify, then permit.

API 2015 and 2016, NFPA 51B and 1910.252 sit beside 1910.147.

How it goes wrong
Permit issued on an unverified blind

The blind list says installed. Nobody walked it. The permit issued; the line was live.

Vapour system not isolated for hot work

Product lines blinded; the vapour recovery line to the roof was still connected.

Contractor lock, terminal procedure

The contractor's own lockout procedure is used on the terminal's equipment. The two do not match.

Worked example

Real isolation-point structure, illustrative tags, equipment that does not exist. Free to read and download. An example to learn from — not a document to adopt.

TK-401 Nozzle Weld Repair - Hot Work

Weld repair to the 6in outlet nozzle on TK-401. NFPA 51B hot work. Fire watch 30 minutes after work stops.

  • 10 isolation points
  • 1 must stay energised

Also applies: 29 CFR 1910.252 and NFPA 51B · 29 CFR 1910.146

Read the example
What Setyr does about it
Professional Plus
The permit waits for the lockout

A procedure can require the hot-work permit; the isolation must be verified before it issues, and the work order cannot close while it is open.

Professional
Blinds as verified points

Each blind is an apply-and-verify isolation point with its own attestation, not a line on a list.

Professional
Contractors as site users

Contractors execute the terminal's procedure as users of the site, on the terminal's record. Unlimited.

Plans are per site, per year, unlimited users — see pricing.

See it on your own equipment