Product category:
Machinery/plant guarding and protection
News Release from: Firetrace International | Subject: Firetrace System
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 August 2002
System suppresses grinding machine fire
Grinding machines are designed to be very safe and prevent the conditions necessary to create a fire, but when human error intervenes, a fire detection/extinguishing system saves the day.
Although grinding machines are designed to be very safe and prevent the conditions necessary to create a fire, they are operated by humans who, on rare occasions, make mistakes Operator error can lead to quite serious fires inside of these types of grinding machines
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 2 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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When a fire does occur, the operator is typically safe from the fire, but the machine itself faces serious damage if the fire is not suppressed immediately.
A large Machine shop located in the Northeast has a very sophisticated and expensive ($300,000) Shuette grinding machine.
A Firetrace International Distributor installed a UL Listed/FM Approved Indirect Low Pressure (ILP) System filled with 12 lbs.
of FM-200(r) to protect this machine from fire.
The system also included a manual release.
One day, not long after the operator started his first job, he noticed that smoke was filling up the working area inside the machine (the working area of this machine is closed and sealed off from the outside environment).
The smoke was caused by not enough fluid being dispensed behind the grinding wheels.
This heavy smoke is a highly ignitable mist.
The mist was quickly and violently ignited by a spark, and a flash fire occurred inside the chamber.
The detection tubing detected the fire in front of the mist collection unit and instantly dispensed the FM-200 through the two Discharge Nozzles.
The fire was extinguished immediately.
The operator actually hit the manual release, but he later realized the system had already activated before he hit it.
The shop supervisor believes that the fire was extinguished so fast that there was virtually no damage to the $300,000 machine.
The Firetrace International distributor was there within two hours and quickly serviced the Firetrace Automatic Suppression System resulting in minimal machine downtime.
* Note that Shuette MSA does not endorse Firetrace.
Their equipment is inherently safe from fire when operated correctly.
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