Fire Extinguishers
Managing Health & Safety Requirements with Fire Extinguishing Systems
Health and safety is paramount in business, not only in the sense of legal requirements to protect your people but also to protect your investment.
Why It’s Important to Manage Risk Around Thermal Fluid
Thermal fluid is used above its flash points in thermal fluid systems and is combustible. When there is a leak inside a thermal fluid heater, for example in the coil, the thermal fluid could catch fire. When thermal fluid has ignited it will continue to burn even when the fuel burner is off, as long as there is enough oxygen and the heater temperature is high. Argon fire extinguishing systems provide additional safety for thermal fluid heaters. Thermal Fluid and Water Hot and burning thermal fluid should not come into contact with water. The water would evaporate and spray the oil in a fine mist, intensifying or starting a fire. Instead of water, inert gases should be used:- Nitrogen
- Carbon dioxide
- Argon
- In addition to the manual release of argon, automatic triggering is important
- When invoked, the fire extinguishing system stops the burner and the heater opens the argon supply
- When the heater does not require emergency thermal fluid circulation all pumps are stopped in order to reduce the oil pressure
- The automatic argon release logic uses the safety temperature limiter in the flue gas as the primary trigger
- Other triggers such as:
- fire detection after the burner shut down minimum oil level switch or; sudden pressure drop may be used depending on the type and nature of the system
- Fail safe wiring is used and is independent of auxiliary power
- Emergency power or pressurised air is not needed
