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Biography:
Ralph Foiles founded Process Protection Inc., an explosion protection consulting firm in 2002. The firm provides evaluation, design and compliance services for explosion protection of industrial processes in a variety of industries. Ralph currently serves as the president and is actively involved in the day-to-day operations, client support and explosion protection solution development.
Prior to starting the company, Ralph had acquired 20 years of experience within the explosion protection field. Throughout which he utilized NFPA, VDI, FM and other resources as tools and devices for explosion protection strategy development with particular emphasis on NFPA 68 and 69.
He began his EP career in 1987 with Fike Corporation (an industry leader in explosion protection equipment) on their explosion protection team. During his tenure at Fike he held several positions within the explosion protection division: application engineer, product manager and marketing manager. All of which afforded him extensive exposure to the customer needs, the strategies available to address explosion protection requirements and the industry trends.
He has experience with applying explosion protection strategies in various process industries and in supporting product development to meet the unique challenges of certain applications. The time spent in the field working with customers has positioned Ralph to bring insight into a wide variety of industrial processes regarding their specific explosion protection needs and challenges. This familiarity with industrial processes and the explosion hazards provides a solid base for Ralph to approach the development of a comprehensive explosion protection strategy for his current client base.
His explosion protection product manager position at Fike, necessitated his thorough understanding of customer requirements, existing potential protection solutions such as flameless venting, isolation, and suppression as well as alternative strategies. As a product manager Ralph was charged with understanding the specific market needs and industry trends and defining better ways to address them.
Ralph has been the featured speaker at industry conferences on explosion protection solutions, and has been published in various industry trade journals. He wrote the article, “To Vent or Not to Vent”, concerning misapplied explosion vent applications in the October 2004 issue of Chemical Engineering.

He graduated from the University of Kansas in Lawrence with a bachelor of science in Chemical Engineering. In addition to his corporate responsibilities, he is a member of NFPA and AIChE.

Know-how and experience:
See Biography

Fields of Consulting work:
Dust Explosion Protection
Explosion Risk Assessment
Process Evaluation - Dust Explosion Risk
Explosion Venting
Explosion Suppression
Explosion Isolation

Publications:
"To Vent or Not Vent" Chemical Engineering, 2004
"Explosion Risk Assessment of Process Equipment" Powder & Bulk Solids Conference, 2006