Regular testing and upkeep guarantee a most service life and useful and failure-related security of technical home equipment. The identical applies to foam-based hearth extinguishing systems and the froth proportioners installed in them.
Up to now, Be the first and maintenance have required the presence of personnel on-site. However, it will be easier and more cost-efficient for extinguishing system operators if this was possible in a fully automatic and remote-controlled method. For instance, this is able to also make regular maintenance personnel journey to remotely positioned proportioners redundant. In addition, this may be positive that requirements by the manufacturer, requirements and sets of laws are observed with none practical deviations and unsuitable time intervals.
The remote testing system throughout the ‘Smart Proportioner’ growth framework has been created only for this objective. It is an development of the remote monitoring system.
Brief overview of the remote monitoring system
The distant monitoring system is used for proportioner monitoring in testing mode throughout maintenance and stay firefighting operations.
In the course of remote monitoring, the proportioning price and other working parameters are decided, recorded and forwarded to the system operator if essential. Thus, the sleek performance and operational readiness of the system are monitored and ensured this way.
A remote monitoring system consists of a management system, together with an optional local show unit (HMI) if applicable, and sensor expertise. The sensor expertise includes, as a minimum, the possibility to determine the water motor’s variety of revolutions and to discover out the foam agent circulate fee. These values are used to calculate the proportioning price. This figure is the core characteristic in the course of the operation and testing of a foam proportioner. Further sensor know-how is available on an optional basis.
The distant monitoring system helps the operating and repair personnel on-site. It is also suitable for remote monitoring of the froth proportioner.
However, it is a fundamental proven fact that personnel are at all times necessary to carry out the upkeep work or the proportioning fee testing on-site as the system performs a monitoring position only. It doesn’t actively work together with the functioning of the proportioner.
In the course of remote monitoring, the proportioning price and different working parameters are determined, displayed and forwarded. Images supplied by Author / Contributor
Evolution – from distant monitoring to remote testing
The query is how to further decrease the upkeep effort on foam proportioners.
The solution lies within the distant testing system, the subsequent step of the clever FireDos proportioners. The remote testing system permits monitoring of the proportioner and particular person maintenance, together with proportioning fee testing.
The condition of the proportioner may be checked without having to begin up the hearth extinguishing system. No personnel are required on-site. Proportioners in a remote place or which are only not often inspected by personnel on-site may be checked without upkeep workers and related bills, corresponding to travel expenditure. In specific, growing the testing interval is possible without additional efforts. The instruction manual for FireDos proportioners requires common starting-up, using the service crank manually at the least. This is meant to forestall deposits contained in the equipment, impairing its ease of motion and thus conserving the proportioner’s performance. The remote testing system can undertake these regular movements and check the proportioning rate, increasing the service life and practical security of the proportioner.
What is the design of a distant testing system?
The distant testing system is mostly based mostly upon the remote monitoring system. It is, nonetheless, significantly extended by means of actuators. This is as a outcome of they enable the utterly unbiased operation of the remote testing system; i.e., the proportioning fee of the proportioner is examined without activating the water pumps of the fireplace extinguishing system.
The core parts embody a central management system, with an optional HMI, sensor know-how, electrical ball valve drives, an electrical drive for the proportioner and a bypass line past the water motor.
The connection of the electrical drive and the proportioner is designed in order that the electrical drive could have no interference with the proportioner’s functionality in the case of a fire. This way, the benefits of the mechanical proportioning precept are preserved.
How does the remote testing system work, and the way can the proportioning fee be checked without activating the water pumps?
If in ready-to-operate mode, the proportioner is at all times in the proportioning position. Upon initiation of an automated testing process, irrespective of if after an outlined time interval, upon request via a cloud solution or from the fireplace extinguishing system/a native operator, the proportioner is put into testing operation. Specifically, the control system puts the proportioner into testing operation utilizing an electrically actuated ball valve drive whereas the froth agent just isn’t blended into the extinguishing water but returned to the foam agent tank. At the same time, it opens the electrically actuated ball valve in the bypass line previous the water motor. Next, the electrical drive of the proportioner is activated, driving the entire proportioner at its start-up circulate price. The start-up circulate price is the lowest operating point of a proportioner to reach its nominal proportioning fee.
Due to the external electrical drive, the water motor works like a pump and generates a water circulate through the bypass from the water motor’s outlet to the water motor’s inlet. The operation causes no change of pressure in the extinguishing water line. The fireplace extinguishing system is due to this fact not influenced when the proportioner is tested.
As the extinguishing water circulate price simulated by the external drive can be known as a outcome of recognized ratio of the water motor’s variety of revolutions and the water move price, just the froth agent circulate fee have to be decided to allow the next calculation of the proportioning rate. This is done by a volumetric flow meter between the proportioning pump’s outlet and the ball valve, which switches between returning and proportioning mode. This allows dedication of the foam agent move fee, both in testing mode and while proportioning in case of an alarm.
The proportioning fee is decided based on the method as required within the standards and rules EN 13565-1, NFPA eleven, FM 4-12, and the Nordtest NT Fire 042 methodology.
Foam agent flow rate [l/min]
(Extinguishing water move price x one hundred = proportioning price %+ foam agent move rate) [l/min]
After completion of the testing course of, the electric drive of the proportioner stops, the bypass line is closed, and the proportioner is returned to proportioning mode.
Sensor expertise put in as an additional possibility or inside the electric drive allows obtaining additional info and conclusions concerning the state and situation of the respective unit. It is checked, for instance, whether or not the ball valves are of their appropriate positions or adequate oil is in the crankshaft housing of the proportioning pump. In addition, the pressure values on the pump inlet/outlet and the pressure on the water motor are recorded. Finally, measuring the whole system’s torque and the flow rate inside the bypass line allows checking the final condition of the proportioner.
The knowledge can be displayed regionally or through a cloud answer. Controlling the maintenance operation is also attainable via both interfaces.
What if there is an alarm during a testing process?
An necessary query is: Does the proportioner work with none limitations and as usual if there is an alarm? The reply is: Yes!
The distant testing system is designed in such a way that extinguishing water can circulate via the water motor and start it up at any time, even if the electrical drive is working at the identical time. In addition, a novel, absolutely computerized and purely mechanical decoupling mechanism ensures that the electrical drive does not intervene with the proportioner’s functioning and readiness to function.
In case of an alarm, the ball valves within the bypass line and those for switching between returning and proportioning are immediately switched in order that the proportioner is in proportioning mode for firefighting. Thus, the management system is put into alarm mode on this case. This alarm mode causes the disabling of all functions not needed at that second and all ball valves to be set to their appropriate place.
Therefore, in case of an alarm throughout testing operation, the ball valves swap to their correct position totally mechanically and the electric drive is switched off. Even if the electrical drive remains to be running or coming to a cease, the extinguishing water can move through the water motor and drive the proportioning pump with out limitations. The alarm mode of the management system prevents re-activation of the electric drive or any unintended ball valve switching.
What advantages does a distant testing system provide?
Compared with standard proportioners and those outfitted with a remote monitoring system, a remote testing system offers varied advantages. They characteristic the following:
ν Proportione
Display view for testing operation of the FireDos distant testing system. Images equipped by Author / Contributor
cian have to be on-site.
Regular proportioning fee testing: Regular proportioning rate testing ensures optimum functioning of the proportioner in case of a fireplace. If the proportioning price is simply too low, the extinguishing success could be compromised. Overdosing causes the froth agent to be consumed sooner than meant, leading to the premature ending of the foam operation.
Increasing functional and failure safety because of elevated testing intervals: An increased test interval causes the proportioner to be tested totally automatically at shorter intervals of time. This notably reduces the danger of a failure remaining undetected for an extended time period. In addition, extra frequent testing prevents the formation of deposits contained in the water motor.
Early fault detection and diagnostics: Faults in the proportioner or parts of the extinguishing system, immediately affecting the proportioner’s performance, could be identified at an early stage of time. This contains, for example, stress variations within the extinguishing water line or a jammed suction line.
Inclusion of all features and advantages of the remote monitoring system: All functions and benefits of the distant monitoring system are additionally present within the remote testing system, i.e. all relevant working parameters are recorded and processed constantly and correctly in addition to documented in a log file. In addition, all data are displayed by a visualization.
Reduction of costs: Regular functional testing makes it attainable to detect faults even earlier. This means, upkeep and repairs can happen before any extra critical harm occurs. The elevated performance and fault security of the proportioner ensures that the service life of the proportioners is maximized and the likelihood of a failure is minimized. As a result, lowered service and working workforce on-site reduce costs considerably, notably if the proportioner is positioned in a distant place. In addition, functional testing of the proportioner permits early identification, evaluation and presumably limiting a fault remotely. This makes service visits more efficient and subsequently more cost-effective.
Summary and prospect
The remote monitoring system already offers varied advantages and helps scale back costs, however it cannot reduce the workforce required on-site.
The distant testing system is a solution for decreasing upkeep requirements. It is the following evolution in the center of developing clever FireDos proportioners.
The distant testing system permits lowering the workforce required on-site to a minimum, along with shorter testing intervals and increased failure security. This will increase the proportioner’s service life.
If the proportioner is in a fault-free state, no additional upkeep by personnel on-site is critical, other than an oil change. The oil change could be carried out by the operator’s personnel, too, easily and without any deeper data of the operating principle of proportioners. If a service visit or repair should nonetheless become essential, distant monitoring and early fault detection will make the planning and completion of such work more efficient.
Like the remote monitoring system, the distant testing system is an optimum symbiosis of mechanical proportioners and an intelligent digital upgrade. Thus, the advantages from each know-how fields are combined with out compromising the performance of mechanical FireDos proportioners.
For extra information, go to www.firedos.com
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