The inventor Kennerth Samuelsson has, since 1970, developed and manufactured high-pressure washing appliances for agriculture and industry. Since this, he has motor sport as a hobby. In 1990 he drove F3 and nowadays he has a super sport car of the make, Tiga.
FIA, the International Motoring Association, banned the use of Halogen within motoring at the end of the 1990’s. Halogen was historically the dominating extinguishing agent in fixed extinguishing systems in rally and racing cars.
The functional requirement from FIA was that the fire extinguisher could be completely emptied irrespective of position. A traditional solution with delivery tubes was therefore not possible.
Kennerth then began to experiment with a bladder as the driving mechanism. It became apparent that it was a rather complicated and expensive solution.
Instead, a piston accumulator was developed with moving pistons. For this container a membrane valve was developed that could be activated mechanically and electrically with minimal power.
After tests with SP, the Swedish Research Laboratory in Borås, Fogmaker in 1997 became the first extinguishing system homologated according to FIA’s new requirements with approval 97.001.
Since an engine compartment is rather dirty, a leak-free spray nozzle cap is required that prevents dirt from penetrating the spray nozzle and clogging it.
Since water mist cost more than the low-pressure extinguisher with powder and foam the development was not as desired, not even within motor sport.
Technology means a relatively heavy construction that is not always appreciated within motor sport where weights in grams are often important.
The customers were primarily historical motorcar enthusiasts and long-distance sailors who had the common demand that they required effective extinguishing systems.
At the end of the 1990’s the company received several prizes for an innovative and environmentally friendly product.
The focus was then aimed at machines in a hazardous environment and underground machines that were included in the insurance requirements.
Since the beginning of the 1980’s in Sweden there have been insurance requirements for fixed mounted fire extinguishers in vehicles that operate in a hazardous environment. This includes machines within the forest industry, petrochemical industry and recycling. These requirements, RUS 127, nowadays, SBF 127, are also used by the mine companies’ safety committees for underground machines.
According to SBF 127 there shall be a fixed mounted extinguisher system that protects the engine and hydraulics compartment if this is located in direct contact with the engine.
Just as within motor sport, these extinguisher systems had previously been dominated by Halogen until its use had been banned.
Machines with automatic activation had an extra tube of Halogen with manual activation as a reserve that could be used in any possible re-ignition of the fire.
When Halogen was banned many halogen extinguisher systems were rebuilt for powder. However, this was not so popular due to the extensive cleaning required after a possible activation. Since this, powder rarely exists and in such cases only in underground machines. All of this depends on Ansul’s very dominating position in this market.
This market had the potential for water mist. The customers were not as price-sensitive as the more consumer-focused motor sport and pleasure boat market.
The requirement to be approved according to SBF 127 is to be able to extinguish a machine with at least 2 cubic meter engine compartment volume with the following preparation:
The machine is prepared with a mixture consisting of 5,5 litres of oil, diesel, hydraulic oil and fire-lighting fluid mixed with 6 litres of dry sawdust.
400 grams of cotton waste drowned in fire-lighting fluid is put in the protected space.
The engine in the machine is then run hot for 20 minutes at low revs. Then the engine is revved up to 1800 revs per minute for 7 minutes.
A mixture of three litres of oil, diesel and fire-lighting fluid is then injected at 1,4 Mpa.
Thereafter, the compartment around the engine is ignited. The fire is allowed to develop for 45 seconds. Then a further 2 litres of hydraulic oil is sprayed onto the fire at 1,4 Mpa. After a total of 90 seconds the engine is stopped and the extinguisher system is activated manually.
Fogmaker passed this test with only 1,2 litres of extinguisher fluid per cubic metre. Later we were approved for 2 litres of extinguisher fluid per cubic metre of engine compartment.
This can be compared with powder that demands 5 kg per cubic metre engine compartment, Co2 6 kg and 12 bar powder extinguisher 3 litres.
Note that water mist is 2,5 times more effective than powder calculated per unit of weight.
After approval water mist was above all appreciated by companies with underground machines. They had traditionally been equipped with powder systems.
Underground machines have primarily mechanical activation. Due to the very rugged environment the electronic automatic fire alarms on above ground machines cannot cope with this situation.
It is a requirement that forestry machines shall have semi or fully automatic extinguisher systems. The electronics that are then required are rather sensitive to voltage peaks that can occur in welding work and the use of start cables.
Another problem that occurred was with vibrations and not in the least with chips machines and crushing mills. The vibrations break down the bimetallic detectors in less than two years. The result will be that an over-sensitivity exists for the least vibration so that the system alarms and is activated unintentionally.
After a fair amount of practical experience we decided instead to concentrate on a pneumatic detection and activation. A new valve was developed and was approved by the insurance companies in December 2003.
In 2004, 90 % of all systems were semi or fully automatic with pneumatic detection and activation.
A large number of these newly added customers are buses. Between the years 1996 to1999 the compensation for fire damage on buses in Sweden was doubled.
The buses that caught fire were no old worn-out servants but often, newer models.
The cause depends on several factors. New low emission engines have higher fuel pressure and increased engine compartment temperature. At the same time the noise level requirement has been tightened (72 dB). Altogether the modern day environmental requirements have contributed to the fact that the number of fires has increased. A fuel or oil leak can have extremely dramatic consequences.
Customers want a dependable and reliable extinguisher system. Extinguishing an engine compartment fire with a hand extinguisher in a bus is not the easiest thing in the world. If it is a question of a central engine it is in principle impossible if the fire has developed.
Since the 1st of January 2004 it is mandatory with fully automatic approved extinguisher systems on all newly registered Swedish buses >10 tons that wish to take out fire insurance policies.
Traffic For London has placed demands on automatic extinguisher systems on all new and renovated buses in London.
Buses and in particular city buses have extremely small spaces for an extinguisher system. Thanks to the unique construction the extinguisher can be located horizontally up in the ventilation channel.
The tight engine space means that the water mist is a very suitable alternative. It forces in and effectively cools the seat of the fire.
The Swedish National Road Administration and its equivalent in Norway, Statens Vegvesen have together financed and given SP in Borås the assignment of, for example, developing a test model for fixed extinguisher systems in buses. The first full scale tests will be conducted in the first half of 2008.
This will be the first repeatable fire test model for small engine compartments.
Looking at the present and the future of Fogmaker we are now able to produce 10.000 units a year. We are aiming to obtain the ISO certifications 9001 and 14001 at the end of 2007, and we are also developing and testing other applications in which the Fogmaker extinguisher can be a future standard application.
