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FRCs are a sore subject with me. They have led to more heat related injuries than flash fires ever would. Completely ridiculous and a wasted expense. COP and Exxon may have started it but everyone else in the industry has continued to make it worse. All the service companies that I know of require them at all times on location or in the yard.
Safety is very important, I have seen some needless injuries over my career. But FRCs should be done away with ASAP except in cases where a flash fire is actually a hazard, which is in very few instances.
Having manufactured FRC stuff at different times in my career I know quite about about how to make them but not so much about the why. On a personal level I am aware of, documented, about 6 lives and or at the least serious injuries that have been staved off by FR clothing. There are probably more.
In the last 3-5 years there has been a large push and effort on the part of the manufacturers to make FR stuff as comfortable and environment friendly as possible, witness the vented back coveralls and shirts.
One technical aspect of the whole FR deal that adds quite a bit of cost to the deal is that the O&G companies all seem to require "personalization" and "customization" of their products; i.e. all kinds of name patches, flags, logo's, and all kinds of odd reflective patterns with special reflective specked in, FR of course, and thus the cost gets way high. If things were more standardized the cost would come down greatly for many of these companies.
I do think the FR stuff is over used, but I really don't know as I am just not that familiar with all the applications. I think the O&G companies know that this is mainly a CYA deal, but that hasn't stopped the safety side of things of going way out of control.
The companies that still require NOMEX are nuts, at least the FR Cotton and some of the other fabrics are much, much cooler.