High-expansion foam Outside Air

Warehouses that store hazardous substances are subject to a high risk of rapid-fire spreading. Detecting and extinguishing a fire (of flammable liquids) very quickly is an essential condition. High-expansion foam is used as an extinguishing medium to suppress fires in enclosed (storage) spaces. By filling the room with foam withan expansion of more than 500, the free air is replaced by air that is trapped in the foam bubbles. This effectively suffocates the fire. An insulating blanket of foam reduces heat radiation. The formation of a combustible mixture of flammable vapours and air is disrupted.

Solution

A high-expansion foam system with outside air uses fresh outside air for the foam production. This means that the system can be used without restriction virtually anywhere. The outside air is forced inwards by a high-expansion foam generator. This is used to overcome the rising air of the fire inside the building and the strong wind over the building. For the design of our high-expansion foam generator, we take the installation height into account. The generator takes up minimal space inside the building and little architectural modification to the roof is necessary. The installation of the generators in architectural roof openings is straightforward and performed by us. We can install 30 generators per day. Our high-expansion foam generators with foaming of more than 500 produce a lot of foam with relatively little water.
Maintenance to the high-expansion foam generators can be carried out safely and cleanly from the roof side of the building via the hatch at the top of the housing. The housing is equipped with thermal insulation, preventing moisture, frost and condensation from affecting the life span of the system.

The activation

Rapid activation is essential for effective extinguishing. To prevent a wrongful activation of the fire extinguishing system, a heat detection system is used that is based on fibre-optic technology. This system performs permanent temperature measurements in the storage ware- houses. A temperature rise will be immediately detected and localised. In the event of a fire, the high-expansion foam system is activated, the generators and ventilation hatches are actuated pneumatically (CO2) and the fan in the high-expansion foam generator is water-pow- ered, so the system is not dependent on electricity.