Not all foam proportioners are equally suitable for sprinkler systems

As recently confirmed by bvfa (in German), 65% of all successes in fire extinguishing are achieved by sprinkler systems with one or two sprinklers. In addition to conventional sprinkler systems that work with water, foam sprinklers are also used. Due to the low start-up limit, FireDos proportioners are just perfect for use in such systems. If the fire spreads quickly, also a large number of sprinklers can be supplied with premix to generate extinguishing foam.  

According to the study conducted by bvfa (Federal Association for Technical Fire Protection in Germany), the objects with the highest fire risk were IT systems, electrical switch gear and machinery. Referring to the individual industries, this means that power- and machine-intensive sectors such as metal processing, the automotive industry and IT service providers are most frequently affected by fires. Different extinguishing systems are used, depending on the industry and the material potentially on fire. In addition to inert gas and CO2 fire extinguishing systems, sprinkler systems are the preferred solution in 23% of the cases, particularly in the retail sector.

The bvfa study proves the high effectiveness of sprinkler systems for incipient fires:

• In 2022, 65% of the extinguishing successes with sprinkler systems were achieved by using one or two sprinklers. 
• The extinguishing process was activated automatically in 97% of cases. 
• 74% of all fires occur during the working hours. 

It is not only the time advantage of automatic extinguishing processes compared to manual ones that speaks for the stationary fire extinguishing systems. They also make it possible to alert the fire service outside the working hours and to contain or extinguish fires at an early stage: 

„In the event of a fire, the time advantage compared to manual activation can be decisive for a timely escape and firefighting. Outside the working hours, due to a lack of personnel being present, stationary extinguishing systems are the only way to alert firefighters and simultaneously contain the fire until the firefighters arrive.“ (bvfa)

Foam sprinklers are mainly used when flammable liquids or large quantities of plastics need to be protected. The foam sprinklers are ideally suited for protecting high-bay warehouses, stations for filling tank trucks or for system protection, for example in hydraulic power units or transformer stations. Foam sprinklers are also used in recycling and waste incineration plants.

When fighting a fire with extinguishing foam, the proportioning rate is crucial. FireDos proportioners have a very low start-up limit. This is the minimum extinguishing water flow rate at which a proportioning system reaches the actual nominal proportioning rate. 

With FireDos proportioners, the desired proportioning rate is achieved already at a low minimum water flow rate and remains constant over a wide volumetric flow and pressure range. All proportioners are extensively tested on our in-house test stand before delivery. Automatic adaptation to varying firefighting scenarios, e.g. by activating additional sprinklers, is guaranteed. 

In the VdS approval of the proportioner FD10000/3-S of generation GEN III, for example, the following information is given for the various applications with regard to different pressure stages and flow rates:

	Wet sprinkler system	Dry sprinkler system	Water spray or foam extinguishing system
5 bar	300 to 10000 l/min	300 to 10000 l/min	300 to 10000 l/min
10 bar	400 to 10000 l/min	400 to 10000 l/min	600 to 10000 l/min
16 bar	500 to 10000 l/min	700 to 10000 l/min	700 to 10000 l/min

If a fire spreads quickly, which means that a large number of sprinklers is required, the proportioners guarantee a constant proportioning rate even at high flow rates to supply all sprinklers with premix and efficiently fight the fire with extinguishing foam.