Protection Markets

Block Engineering has established a dominant brand in these markets, as the leading company for Passive, Standoff FTIR Spectrometers. Chemical sensing has been a major focus of the military due to the increased threat from chemical weapons of mass destruction and, most recently, Toxic Industrial Chemicals (TICs). Block has years of experience developing and selling spectrometers to this market.

The Army is funding Block's ChemPen™ program to supply the next generation devices that could be carried by soldiers or be mounted on combat vehicles and provide sub-lethal detection of dangerous gases and liquids. In addition, Block has participated in the development and is now providing the FTIR spectrometers (M90) of the Mobile Chemical Agent Detector (MCAD) for remote standoff protection of critical facilities. Block also has recently introduced a PORTable Hazard Observation System (PORTHOS™), which is expected to provide similar functionality to MCAD, but in a lightweight, portable design. Potential customers for PORTHOS™ include HazMat Teams, Border Control, Firefighters, Port Authorities, First Responders, Special Forces, Marines and several intelligence agencies.

Furthermore, in the near future, our low cost miniaturized point sensors (ChemPen™) will fulfill the need for a distributed network of detectors to monitor and protect buildings, installations, subways, malls and other similar infrastructure. Our LaserChem™ products will be able to provide trace-level detection and identification of substances in the field. Such capability could also protect the Supply Chain of food ingredients, pharmaceutical and chemical material and identify erroneous or mislabeled substances at point of Incoming Inspection.

In the Life Safety protection area, our sensors will be able to detect flammable/explosive gases or liquids and warn operators and workers against entering certain areas.

In those industries, based on our technologies and products:

  • Special sensors detect threats from chemical cloud releases from 3 miles away protecting critical government facilities, such as military installations, surrounding communities, embassies, or large civilian gatherings, such as during Superbowl, 4th of July, World Series
  • Handheld or vehicle-mounted devices are used by soldiers to identify potentially toxic substances in the field
  • Special Forces use unique equipment to detect smoke stack gases associated with WMD production or similar illegal operations
  • HazMat and First Responders identify unknown substances in high traffic areas, such as subways, stadiums, malls, casinos
  • Sensors embedded in HVAC systems in critical buildings (e.g. Pentagon) monitor the quality of air to detect poisonous or toxic gases
  • Quality Control technicians use handheld devices to identify, authenticate and validate incoming material for food, beverage and drug manufacturing
  • Distributed sensors detect build-up of flammable gases on off-shore oil rigs, mines, refineries.