POK FIRE PUMPS  (3)

The fire sprinkler system in your building is a critical safety measure and, when needed, it can save lives. Still, even the best systems can malfunction, and sprinklers do occasionally fail. When they do, they can drench the interior of your building, damaging everything from furniture and personal belongings to drywall and building materials. As a property manager, dealing with fire sprinkler failure can feel overwhelming. What do you do next? Where do you start? And why did the sprinkler system fail in the first place? In this post, we’ll discuss the common causes of accidental discharge, and what to do if it happens to you. Reasons for Fire Sprinkler Systems Failure Today, all building fire sprinkler systems must meet NFPA 13 standards. These National Fire Protection Association benchmarks define safety requirements for components and installation, and help ensure that sprinkler systems are well maintained and ready to perform. Still, fire sprinkler systems can fail. Here are a few of the most common culprits: Aging parts Building renovations (collisions with construction equipment, displacement or disturbance, etc.) Incorrectly placed heating systems that activate sprinklers Vulnerable pipes that freeze and cause sprinkler heads to burst Corrosion Fire sprinkler malfunctions can be incredibly problematic, causing extensive damage to your building Regardless of what causes the sprinklers to discharge accidentally, fire sprinkler malfunctions can be incredibly problematic, causing extensive damage to your building and requiring costly repairs from a water damage repair contractor. 5 Things to do if Your Sprinklers Fail There are no flames in your building, but your sprinklers are soaking everything in sight. You have to move quickly to avoid even more damage. Stay calm and follow these five steps: Get everyone out Even if there’s not an active fire in the building, water poses its own set of dangers. To avoid problematic slip and fall conditions, get everyone out of the area immediately. Move them to a safe location outside the building, preferably one you’ve agreed on in a previously established evacuation plan. Shut off electrical equipment Water and electricity are a deadly combination. To avoid electrical shocks, shut off all nearby electrical equipment and appliances, and then, turn off the building’s main power supply, as you exit the building. Turn off the water main Instead of wasting time shutting off broken sprinkler heads individually, go to the building’s main water supply immediately and shut it off at the valve. This will stop all water flow and prevent additional water damage. Take photos of the scene Once it’s safe to re-enter the building, document the scene. Use your smartphone to take photos of broken sprinkler heads or anything else you believe may have caused the accidental discharge. Additionally, take photos of the damage the sprinklers caused to floors, walls, personal belongings, and more. These photos can help response specialists understand the cause of the malfunction and may streamline your insurance claims process. Contact a restoration specialist Even if your water damage looks minimal, you’ll need to contact a skilled water damage restoration expert, like the Chicago-based maintenance and service company, ServiceMaster Restoration by Zaba.  Accidental sprinkler discharges soak drywall, destroy carpets and textiles, and lead to dangerous mold and mildew growth, which can happen just 24-48 hours after water exposure. Prevent worsening damage and the dangerous conditions by contacting a sprinkler repair specialist right away. Cleanup and water damage restoration services Using your documentation, your insurance company will work to determine the cause of the sprinkler failure Using your documentation, your insurance company will work to determine the cause of the sprinkler failure. This can be a lengthy process that takes weeks or even months. As that happens, your cleanup team will focus on providing water damage restoration services. Typically, fire sprinkler water damage involves ‘blackwater’- a dangerous mixture of sediments and other contaminants that leave behind an unpleasant smell and a film that can destroy belongings. To reclaim your space, the water damage restoration service will focus on extracting the remaining water, drying the space to prevent mold and mildew formation, and decontaminating all surfaces. This is a critical step that you can’t afford to rush. Work with the best water damage cleanup company you can find to ensure positive results. Protecting Your Sprinkler Systems in the Future While it’s impossible to completely avoid every accidental discharge, there are certain steps you can take to safeguard your sprinkler system. Proper maintenance, for example, allows you to avoid preventable issues that could lead to malfunction. You should also take care to keep all remodeling and construction work away from sprinkler heads and systems to avoid accidental damage. These are simple tips, but they can help keep your building and tenants safe and dry - both now and in the future.

Within traditional commercial and industrial firefighting systems, engineers have primarily focused on permanent installation designs rather than entertaining alternative or supplemental mobile firefighting systems. Permanent installation design is typically better understood, supported, and supplied throughout the fire protection engineering and manufacturing community. However, mobile firefighting systems provide unique solutions and advantages compared to their permanent installation cousins such as flexible deployment, simpler servicing, improved economy, and much higher performance availability. The combination of both systems is frequently the most strategic solution for the facility operator. Limitations of fixed installation systems Permanent installation (fixed) systems include everything from sprinklers, foam systems, primary watermain pumps, and the plethora of piping in between. A large refinery complex will need to address various hazard mitigation and control problems that span both hardware and personnel needs. In the event standard hazard mitigation safety procedures and equipment have failed, the facility immediately initiates a hazard control operation. Passive fixed systems automatically engage the hazard through an array of sensors, mechanical triggers, and control algorithms. A properly designed system with adequate hazard coverage, preplanning, preventative maintenance, and testing will successfully terminate the hazard, while firefighting personnel respond and ensure no further hazards develop. This conceptual approach relies on hardware and personnel all operating as planned…. Combining permanent and mobile apparatus “According to plan” would never have any failures or fires, but history has a different script. In the worst-case petrochemical scenario, fixed systems fail to extinguish a hazard putting the entire response on human and mobile hardware resources. This would include but is not limited to firetrucks, mobile high-flow pumping systems, large mobile monitors, foam proportioning units, and large diameter layflat hose. This type of response escalates into a larger scale operation, sometimes involving agencies beyond the facility operator itself. Although a low probability event, the risk to life and property is significantly substantial. Fixed systems may be rendered inoperable due to the loss of electrical power or actual physical damage Reducing fire-related expenditureMore typical than the worst-case scenario, facilities experience both maintenance-related system downtimes and natural phenomena damage such as extreme weather and seismic events. In this case, fixed systems may be rendered inoperable due to the loss of electrical power or actual physical damage. In any of these situations, mobile fire apparatus may fill the gap requirements of the facility as their flexible storage and deployment would protect them from everything but the worst natural disasters. Their further benefit is that a smaller set of mobile apparatus resources may be used to protect a larger amount of infrastructure, especially while in use in a mutual-aid program between facilities and communities. According to the NFPA’s report “Total Cost of Fire in the United States”, fire-related damages and expenditures from 1980 to 2014 have risen from roughly $200B (adjusted for inflation to 2014) to nearly $330B. The greatest expenditure is in fire safety costs in building construction, amounting to $57.4B. Although the overall losses per year as a ratio to protection expenditures has dropped by roughly 70% over the past 30 years, petrochemical facility losses have continued to rise over the same time. In the worst-case petrochemical scenario, fixed systems fail to extinguish a hazard  Petrochemical facility challenges According to the NFPA, refineries or natural gas plants had reported an average of 228 fires or explosions per year through the 1990s. Furthering this data with Marsh’s “100 Largest Losses, 25th edition”, refinery losses have continually expanded throughout the last two decades with 11 of the top 20 largest losses of the past 40 years happening during or after the year 2000. Two primary drivers of this trend are the advanced age of petrochemical facilities and their staggering complexity. As oil margins fall, upstream operational businesses are detrimentally affected by reduced investment in everything to new equipment, maintenance and passive safety systems. There is an observable correlation between a major oil price drop followed by upstream facility fire losses. Even with reduced investment and oil throughput growth rates, US refinery utilisation at the end 2017 was at 96.7%, the highest since 2005 (Marsh, The Impact of the Price of Oil). The short story is that systems and personnel are being asked to do more with less with each passing year. Cost-effective mobile apparatus systems  Mobile fire apparatus is generally more cost-effective to procure when using standardised designs and application methodology. They can access open water sources by either drafting (when in close proximity to the water) or using floating source pumps (for variable level or difficult access water sources). Mobile fire apparatus is generally more cost-effective to procure when using standardized designs and application methodology With this open water access, they can provide significantly more water (upwards of 10,000 GPM or more per system if necessary) than any typical fixed fire pumping solution. Moreover, as their primary benefit, they are easy to move and deploy. This benefit allows them to be utilised at the point of hazard as needed while being easily accessible for service. While fixed systems are installed at “every known” hazard and must be continually maintained to operate effectively, mobile systems may be used sitewide or across facilities. This flexibility reduces overall capital expenditure requirements and establishes a valuable primary and secondary firefighting system depending on the hazard and facility resources. Combining fixed and mobile systems Permanent installation fire suppression systems are a mainstay of modern day firefighting. They provide immediate passive response with little human intervention. However, as facility utilisation is pushed to maximum capacity while fixed systems continually age out without adequate replacement or maintenance, mobile systems will need to both fill the response gap and provide a final wall to total loss incidents. The reality is that both fixed and mobile systems need to work together to provide the safest possible operation. Service and training requirements need to also be maintained to manage an adequate, or even better, exemplary response to hazard control incidents. Managing major facility uptime requires continuous oversight and to drive hazard mitigation standards throughout the organisation, including executive management. A safe, reliable and fully-functional plant is also a profitable and cost-effective plant much like a healthy worker is a better worker. Protect your people and property and you will protecting your company’s future.

With a pump outlet, the divider is used to supply several pressurized water lines. The most commonly used dividers have 2 or 3 outlets and are equipped with quick couplings at the inlet and outlets. Dividers are usually equipped with shut-off valves on each outlet to open or close the water supply or to switch equipment. With a pump outlet, the divider is used to supply several pressurized water lines. These dividers exist with several valve models, either ball valves, clappered valves or full water way valves. The most bulky are the full water way valves followed by the clappered valves. Dividers with full water way valves are the most expensive to build, but apart from their size they have the advantage of straight-through flow, which means less pressure drop (pressure drop). die-cast aluminum alloy The same applies to ball valves, which have a full passage through the fluid stream. Apart from the question of cost, what differentiates them is the slow closing of the clappered valve, thus avoiding water hammer (overpressure in the upstream pipelines), as in the case of ball valves, as for clappred valves, water hammer can be avoided by ensuring gradual closing, which is what the German and American fire brigades do. These dividers are equipped with feet that maintain a horizontal position on the floor As for the French firemen, POK has never observed them bending to close a ball valve, it is by kicking on the handle that they operate. The plastic spheres of the Americans are not resistant to this, nor are even the operating handles, which is why the company builds its handles out of die-cast aluminum alloy that does not break on impact. These dividers are equipped with feet that maintain a horizontal position on the floor.  valve divider manufacturing These feet were in the shape of an inverted truncated cone in which the company discovered a disadvantage; when falling on the ground the part of the foot intact with the body of the divider can create a crack on the body leading to the explosion and the uncoupling of the foot with the body when the divider is put in water. To avoid this inconvenience POK has modified the shape of the foot to transfer the break in the middle of the foot. All of POK’s valve dividers with a mass of more than 3.5 kilograms are equipped with this device, giving our valve divider manufacturing an excellent safety of use. Both the inlet and the outlets of the company’s valve manifolds are threaded, which makes it possible to attach all types of fittings with all diameters from DN20 to DN200 and two valve outlets up to five outlets. In large valve diameters, beyond DN100, the valves are equipped with reducers for smoother operation. meet all needs All these dividers are made of aluminum alloy which makes them very light. There are, however, some exceptions such as the US NAVY divider built in bronze, a bronze specified by the US Navy. Customers will find at POK a complete range to meet all of the customer’s needs and ideas.

Optimized according to the percentage of the aspirated product, the eductor’s viscosity, and the duration of the operation, there are several techniques for proportionally mixing various liquids. The simplest, least expensive, and most used by firefighters uses the Venturi effect. This effect is the consequence of a reduction in the flow section of the moving water which lowers the pressure until another liquid can be sucked in, then the premix passes through a regularly increased section which allows the pressure to rise again. Regulating The Suction Percentage The difficulty lies in the fact that a change in the supply pressure of the unit changes the proportion of suction. To remedy this, some manufacturers including POK® insert a valve between the water inlet of the eductor and the inlet of the liquid to be sucked in, which regulates the suction percentage. In particular, this valve makes it possible to adjust the pressure loss (pressure drop) between the inlet and outlet of the eductor. Valve Proportioners The POK proportioners are set for a pressure drop of 35%. Other proportioners in the market have a pressure drop of around 38%. Valveless injectors are economical and relatively imprecise used by British and American fire services  All other units operate without a control valve are called injectors. It has a pressure drop greater than or equal to 40%, allowing it to operate over a wide range of supply pressures.  The valveless injectors are very economical and at the same time relatively imprecise, which is not necessarily a disadvantage with cheap foamers. The injectors are mainly used by the British and American fire services. Usage As Per Economy Valve proportioners are used in Germany and in Germanic regions with a better sense of economy. The percentage of emulsifier in the premix is usually 3% with a knob that ranges from 1% to 6%, and even up to 7% on the Polish standard, but the Poles have chosen this rule to avoid introducing into their country the German, Austrian, Czech, and Russian productions that throughout history have invaded them; but some people claim that this is because of the poor quality of the emulsifier production. Process To Operate A Pump Below a percentage of 1%, a system called around the pump is used, which consists of taking the liquid under pressure from the pump outlet, passing it through an injector, and returning the premix to the pump feed. The injector’s dosing adjustment gives proportions that can vary from 0.1% to 1% and is used to introduce retardants into the liquid to extinguish forest fires. There are other processes where energy from pressure and flow rate is taken to operate a pump and allows very precise dosing with generally high costs and little used for foam production but rather in animal feed.

To meet the ever-increasing demand from firefighters for automatic nozzles, POK® has carried out in-depth work in partnership with professionals to create a nozzle perfectly adapted to the evolution of fires in confined spaces. It is from this work that was born the latest Legend 500 nozzle, made of aluminum alloy. It features an ultra-compact pressure regulation system, as well as a flow selection system with an indexed operating handle. Its diffuser head with cut teeth in aluminum alloy, offers the possibility to adjust the jet to three positions (straight jet, attack jet, wide spray jet). Extinction Of Electric Fires This nozzle is perfectly adapted to the ‘Pulsing’ technique, it allows firefighters to carry out the ceiling test with very little recoil and a quality of fine droplets allowing very efficient work in urban fires. To unlock the full jet, the user must operate a trigger under the nozzle With the Legend nozzle, Pok has succeeded in achieving the same weight and size as a conventional nozzle of the same flowrate, i. e. approximately 2.5 kg depending on the connection. The Legend nozzle is available in several versions including a nozzle allowing the extinction of electric fires. This version is equipped with a safety device that prevents the nozzle holder from accidentally passing through a full jet. To unlock the full jet, the user must operate a trigger under the nozzle. Ensuring Superior Foam Quality It is also possible to have on the Legend nozzle a flow control valve at 250 l/minute. Equipped with this device, the user cannot exceed this flow rate, which allows him to work on specific fires such as boat fires for example. Finally, there is also a version of the Legend nozzle with a diffuser head equipped with a turbine. This ensures superior foam quality when the Legend lance is equipped with a foam adapter. The Legend nozzle has become the reference for automatic nozzles in France. Many fire brigades or administrations have trusted the latter to equip their teams.