Alien Systems & Technologies

Gaseous Fire Extinguishing Systems

There is one question every business needs to ask itself in the 21st Century: "What will happen to my company if my key electronic equipment fails or I lose my data?"

The answer is simple: it could be enough to incur huge financial losses that may take years, even decades to recoup. In some instances, the losses may be enough to shout down the company.

So how does a business protect their high value assets against the risk of fire?

The effective way to protect these assets is the use of gaseous total flooding system. Total flooding means you flood the room containing the asset with a gaseous medium which will inhibit combustion and extinguish the fire. This method of fire protection has become the most popular solution among fire engineers and businesses alike.

Alien Systems & Technologies (Pty) Ltd offers two gaseous fire extinguishing systems:

Pyroshield

The PYROSHIELD Fire Extinguishing System, manufactured by AST (PTY) LTD, is an engineered system utilising a fixed nozzle agent distribution network. The system is designed and installed in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 2001, "Clean Agent Fire Extinguishing Systems" or in accordance with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) Standard 14520 Part 1 and 14 “Gaseous fire-extinguishing systems – Physical properties and system design – General requirements” and “IG-55 extinguishant”

When properly designed, the PYROSHIELD system will extinguish surface burning fire in Class A, B, and C hazards by lowering the oxygen content below the level that supports combustion without obscuring exit routs or endangering human life.

PYROSHIELD is an inert gas mix that is present in the air we breathe and leaves no residue or in any way damages the environment.

The system can be actuated by detection and control equipment for automatic system operation along with providing local and remote manual operation as needed. Accessories are used to provide alarms, ventilation control, door closures, or other auxiliary shutdown or functions.
Basic Use – The PYROSHIELD system is particularly useful for extinguishing fires in hazards where an electrically non-conductive medium is essential or desirable; where clean up of other agents present a problem; or where the hazard is normally occupied and requires a non-toxic agent.

The following are typical hazards protected by a PYROSHIELD system: -

Computer rooms
Sub-floors
Tape storage
Telecommunication/Switch-gear
Vaults
Process equipment
All normally occupied or unoccupied electronic areas where equipment is either very sensitive or irreplaceable

For demonstration videos please visit our YouTube Channel.

CO2

An Efficient Fire Extinguishing Agent That Is Colourless, Odourless, Electrically Non-Conductive and Environmentally Friendly.

Alien Systems & Technologies offers a unique carbon-dioxide fire extinguishing system to minimise the potential for loss of life and property in today's highly specialised environments. When designed, installed, and maintained per international standards, AST's carbon dioxide systems can be used safely and effectively in a variety of special hazard applications.

Caution: Flooding concentrations of carbon dioxide used to suppress fires will not support human life. Therefore, it is imperative that audible and visual warnings be posted to alert personnel to vacate the protected hazard area before agent discharge.

The ASTEX® range of vehicle fire systems has been designed to suit the extremes of the African mining industry.
The systems have stainless steel cylinders for a long reliable working life and use the ASTEX® designed compact, self-setting, stainless steel actuation valve assemblies with a 1¼" BSPF thread.
Designed for interchange ability and reliability, the ASTEX® Actuation Valves are available in Loss of Pressure, Rise of Pressure, Electrical and Dual Actuation.

Whatever the style of system actuation, the use of the ASTEX® vehicle fire suppression equipment will ensure that the system will operate as designed and to its full potential of rounding up and controlling the flames, while also protecting machinery and personnel.

The system is available in three "sizes":

ASTEX® MAXI FOAM FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS FOR HEAVY VEHICLES

The ASTEX® Maxi system has increased cylinder capacity for longer discharges and more nozzles. The Maxi system has been designed to allow configurations to suit applications in a range of industries including:

Surface and underground mining equipment including draglines, haul trucks, dozers and shovels.
Construction equipment including bulldozers, excavators, graders, generators and compressors.
Forestry and agricultural equipment including loggers, loaders, harvesters and tractors.
Aircraft ground support vehicles.
Industrial equipment.
Road transport including prime movers.
Oil and gas applications including platforms and rigs.
Boats and general marine.
Railway equipment and locomotives.

ASTEX® MINI FOAM FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS FOR MEDIUM VEHICLES

The ASTEX® Mini Foam Fire Suppression System has a thirty litre cylinder introduced for medium size equipment designs. It has increased capacity for longer discharges or more nozzles. It can also be configured for 1¼ or 1½ BSP ported valves fitted as an option to the ½" BSP dual valve.

The Mini system suits applications in a range of industries including:

Agricultural equipment
Buses
Small to medium size construction equipment
Forklifts
Medium size commercial vehicles

ASTEX® MICRO FOAM FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS FOR LIGHT VEHICLES

The ASTEX® Micro Foam system has been designed to allow the designer to fit smaller systems to smaller machines where space is limited, such as four wheel drive vehicles. It is supplied in stainless steel for light weight. It uses a specially designed compact ½" BSP dual valve.

Applications include:

4 wheel drive vehicles for mine sites
Agricultural equipment
Turbo charged 4 wheel drives
Medium commercial vehicles
Small buses

The FIRE-PAK Breathing Apparatus aids in safe evacuation during a fire. It provides protection against smoke inhalation during a fire and also offers extensive protection in the event of a toxic gas leakage or other similar risks.

It’s a simple process: in the event of a fire and the need to evacuate the vicinity, put the hood on, pull the string until the hood fits comfortably and securely around your neck, place the mouthpiece in your mouth and press the pump can cap down. This will ensure automatic air release and allow the user to move to a safe and secure area.

Personal protective equipment needs to contain a respiratory device. The FIREPAK product offers up breathable air when the user’s life or health is in immediate danger. Designed for use by non-professionals the breathing apparatus is extremely light weight, easy to use, portable and affordable.

The innovative design means the breathing apparatus can be used in a host of applications including office blocks and buildings, hotels, hospitals and private homes. It can be easily used by adults, the sickly, the aged as well as minors over the age of 3 years old.

AST offers a variety of different product options to suit your budget and your protection needs. The ingenuity of the breathing apparatus ensures that travel options, sharing options for mother and child as well as canister numbers can all be altered to best suit the application.

For more than ten years Pyrogen has been utilised by companies as the best method of switchgear fire protection. The aerosol fire extinguishing system was developed from solid rocket fuel technology and is a safe and practical alternative to other forms of extinguishing agents.

Pyrogen offers key protection against fire threats for switchgear compartments, motor control centres and other specialised industrial risks. One of the key features of the Pyrogen aerosol system is the use of a linear detection element that is sensitive to both heat and arcing typically found in switchgear and MCC panels.
Pyrogen is an inert non-toxic solid that remains stable until electrically or thermally activated, whereupon it produces a gas-like extinguishing aerosol. The aerosol attacks the fire chemically and physically, giving virtual instant extinguishment and preventing re-ignition and, in certain instances, explosions.
The principle of the extinguishing action employed by Pyrogen is unique: a special solid chemical, when electrically or thermally ignited, produces combustion products – micron sized dry chemical particles and gases. When these Dry chemical particles (mainly Potassium Carbonates), and gaseous mixture (mainly Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen and water vapour) mix together, they form a uniform fire extinguishing aerosol.

Before being released into a protected area, the hot aerosol propels itself through a unique solid coolant, which decomposes absorbing huge amounts of heat, thus ensuring flameless discharge and uniform distribution of the cool aerosol within the volume being protected.

For demonstration videos please visit our YouTube Channel.

Pyrostorm is a range of impulse dry powder, modular type fire suppression units designed for industrial type applications. The non-pressurized units can be configured to virtually any application and are also the most cost effective powder-type automatic fire extinguishers available on the market.
Pyrostorm is ideal in protecting industrial risks such as transformers, oil pack rooms, exposed pumps and motors etc. They can be used in conjunction with our voltage free heat activation device which can provide reliable electrical activation via temperature sensing without the need for batteries or electrical supplies.
The units are light weight and easy to install and transport, with no pipework required. In normal applications they are also maintenance free for 10 years.

The Pyrorack is a fully automatic self-contained Fire Extinguishing System specifically designed for 19" Racking Systems. The Pyrorack detects a fire using the coincidence detection method and extinguishes the fire in less than 10 seconds after detection.

The use of the Pyrorack in cabinets ensures that the equipment is being protected close to the potential source of the risk, detecting the fire at an early stage. This eliminates the necessity to discharge large and costly amounts of Fire Extinguishant.

Used in industry sectors such as telecommunications cabinets, banking, computer rooms, IT Networks, CCTV Equipment racks, Website Servers & Hosting Equipment, Public Address System Racks and many more.

Related Articles

Control Panels & Gas Control Units
Bells
Sounders
Manual Call Points
Optical Smoke Detector

Control Panels & Gas Control Units

Conventional control panels and gas control units are key devices when installing a basic fire protection system.

AST offers 2 & 4 zone conventional fire panels that are easy to install and have proven reliability in the field.

AST also supplies gas control/remote units that activate the pilot cylinder driving our Pyroshield and/or CO2 cylinders. For more information please request a quote.

Bells

AST's Super Bell offers a unique low profile alarm bell designed for use in the fire, security and industrial sectors. Exceptional sound quality with reduced current consumption is made possible by combining a miniature DC motor, dual rotating striker assembly and low profile housing. This unique combination provides increased reliability with superior aesthetics to suit every application, including even the most prestigious buildings.

Sounders

The ASTounder forms a key audible alarm indicator in any fire protection system. It offers customers a highly advanced 21st Century sounder that is compliant to all the latest sound patterns used throughout the world complete with low profile dimensions and pleasing aesthetic design.

The ASTounder is an audible alarm indicator. Compliant with all the latest sound patterns used throughout the world, complete with low profile dimensions and pleasing aesthetic design, the ASTounder offers a host of features.

These include flexibility, with two mounting base options, excellent resistance to moisture and dust ingress and a four position volume control allowing for precise volume matching between sounders.

Strobes

Ever wondered why aircraft strobe lights have a double flash – two flashes close together followed by a slight delay? Its psychology – the first flash gets your eye attention and the second flash confirms the warning. The ASTrobe features this psychological attention grabbing effect, which may be user selectable by simple DIP switch settings.

The ASTrobe is AST's sounder/strobe unit that combines the excellent audible quality of the ASTounder with a wide angle lens offering complete frontal & lateral visual indication of an alarm. The ASTrobe offers low profile housing with pleasing aesthetic design that is suitable for all areas except flammable dust, liquid and gas locations. It uses the same IP65 base configurations with the same wiring benefits as the ASTounder – thus giving duplicity across the AST electronic signalling range.

Manual Call Points

AST's Conventional Manual Call Point Range offers the contractor quick "plug and play" installation with reduced installation times and costs. It is available as a 24Vdc Fire Break Glass Unit or Extinguishing Release, or as a 12Vdc Emergency Door release. It is available in Red, Green & Yellow.

The Anti-tamper facility is standard and it is also totally compliant to En54-11. The Fire Break Glass Models are compliant with all EN compliant control panels and all call point models are supplied with an LED Indicatory.

The Manual Emergency Door Release Models come with internally fitted suppression diodes while the Fire & Extinguishant Release Models come with a 680ohm series resistor.

Optical Smoke Detector

The A30XH Thermally enhanced optical smoke detector unit has low profile modern looks with high performance that is ideal for even the most prestigious of buildings.

This microprocessor intelligent detector provides visual warning when maintenance is required and the universal mounting base is standard across the entire A30 range.

This allows for easy maintenance and installation procedures. The A30XH is the ideal companion for a Pyroshield Fire Extinguishing System or wider conventional type fire alarm systems.

Cirrus Pro Detector

The Cirrus Pro Range of Aspirating Fire Detectors provides the earliest form of fire detection on the market today. Unlike other aspirating detectors, it uses unique cloud chamber technology making it impervious to false alarms caused by dust particles, humidity and temperature variations.

A key advantage is that it is able to provide detection of fire combustion at its true incipient stage - before smoke. It cannot confuse smoke with dust particles the way some other aspirating systems do. The Cirrus Pro provides the option of having true incipient stage detection of fire in virtually any environment. This makes the Cirrus Pro Fire Detector the worlds most versatile fire detection device. It is a drop-in replacement for similar systems that give nuisance false alarms.

Cirrus Pro Detectors have a proven track record in affording very early warning detection in dirty environments such as coal power plants, diesel plants etc. without the need for filters. It is also widely used in clean room applications such as server rooms, as well as shopping malls, cold storage rooms and warehouses.

The Cirrus Pro Series of Aspirating Fire Detectors provide a solution for almost any aspirating system project, from a single pipe detector with minimum 'Fire' and 'Fault' LED indications to a multiple pipe scanning detector with multifunction quarter VGA backlit LCD display. Programming for each detector is via a laptop computer or from an onboard or remotely mounted LCD display
For demonstration videos please visit our YouTube Channel.

Pyroscan3

The Pyroscan3 is best utilised in conveyor and transport fire detection. Its success in the industrial and mining sectors is because the system is specifically designed for the protection of areas where a movement of materials with a fire potential is a routine occurrence or the transport mechanism is susceptible to fire.

The PyroScan3 system employs enhanced Infra-red monitoring technology that enables the detection of both small glowing embers within direct sight of the sensor, and black body low energy sources buried within the transported material that would not be registered by other types of flame, spark or ember detector. By the use of both optical filtering and electronic analysis of the various parameters the system is blind to visible light from the sun or local luminaires, whilst being able to detect relatively low temperature material moving through the field of view.

CONVENTIONAL PROTECTION

Optical Heat Detector

The A30XV Rate of Rise & Static Heat Detector unit has low profile modern looks with high performance and is ideal for even the most prestigious of buildings. This detector is ideal for areas where smoke detectors cannot be used because of dust and fumes, such as workshop areas and vehicle loading bays.

Designed and manufactured to the highest standards in an ISO9000 quality controlled environment, the A30XV is the ideal solution to fire alarm warning. The detector is versatile with an interchangeable detector head and base.

It also has the ability to connect to a remote indicator and is the ideal companion for a Fire Extinguishing System, or wider conventional type fire alarm system.