Fire prevention system

On the territory of Ukraine Firex Ltd. is the exclusive supplier of OxyReduct system of active fire prevention, manufactured by Wagner Austria GmbH (Austria).

OxyReduct video presentation

In the course of evolution mankind invented different types of control, regulation and battling with the fire. Traditional fire extinguishing systems, such as water, foam, spray, powder and gas are focused on localization of ignition after its emergence.

Firex Ltd. presents the system that is the next stage in evolution of fire extinguishing systems.

A bit of theory

Let us remind the well-known fire triangle: source of ignition, oxygen, combustible. If we eliminate one component – there won’t be ignition. The only way to reduce the concentration of oxygen is to dilute it with nitrogen. Standard atmosphere consists of 78% of nitrogen (+ about 21% of oxygen). If we add a bit of nitrogen, we obtain the atmosphere in which combustion is impossible. Combustion sources brought from outside become dim, in this case even arson is impossible. But in spite of it, people can stay in the premises up to 6 hours a day.

Installation of OxyReduct inertisation system makes the combustion impossible due to the lack of oxygen and high concentration of nitrogen. The fact that the passengers of the aircrafts are staying in the cabin during the flight at the high altitude in the conditions of low air pressure (about 16 Vol.%) confirms safety of proposed technical solution in protection of different purpose premises by means of OxyReduct fire prevention system.

Altitudes towards 1800 m (corresponds to 17 Vol.%) are considered moderate – people can constantly live and work in such conditions. As for the altitudes towards 2800 m (corresponds to 15 Vol.%), it can provoke hypoxia symptoms (oxygen starvation) during high physical activity.

There are three main types of nitrogen production: cryogenic, adsorptive and membrane. In most cases we use membrane nitrogen generators (adsorptive are used for volumes of more than 1000 m3 nitrogen per hour). For each combustible material there are two limiting values of oxygen concentration: one, when the substance cannot be set on fire and the other, when self-burning is impossible (that is, combustion stops when there is no fire source). The choice of the concentration for concrete site depends mainly on the fire load type and is regulated by “Usability guidelines”.

OxyReduct fire prevention system (inertisation system) is an alternative system to the traditional fire extinguishing and is usually used for the premises, where traditionally was applied gas extinguishing. The main types of the sites, for which OxyReduct has evident advantages, are: server rooms, telecommunications closets, archives and museums.

Application of OxyReduct system gives possibility to exclude fire instead of extinguishing it, that for one’s turn allows to provide continuous equipment rating.

Directions and application features of fire prevention system

The more valuable are the contents of the premises, the more arguments we can provide in favor of OxyReduct system. Equally important is the fact that the contents of the premises won’t be damaged by the attendant factors of the fire (smoke, soot) and won’t be affected because of the extinguishing (that, unfortunately, happens often). Besides the basic advantages (safety of the contents, continuous rating, etc.), we’d like to pay attention to the fact that OxyReduct system can be used as the compensation for change of fire resistance limits of the building.

OxyReduct fire prevention system is applied in the premises without permanent working places. Walk-in accessibility into the protected premises is regulated by the “Medical application counsels”. In general, there are the following restrictions: medical examination (repeated each 3 years) is obligatory for access to the premises with reduced oxygen concentration.

Persons may stay within areas, where the oxygen concentration in the air has been reduced in case that they don’t have known heart-, circulation-, vascular- and respiratory diseases.

Duration of the constant stay:

      • till 17 Vol.% - without restrictions;
      • from 17 Vol.% till 15 Vol.% - for 4 hours;
      • from 15 Vol.% till 13 Vol.% - for 2 hours.

Premises with concentration below 13 Vol.% can be attended only with the self-contained breathing apparatus. In order to ensure fire security for the main part of the site (99%) 15 Vol.% oxygen concentration is enough.

German developers of OxyReduct system carried out a great number of clinical trials of health status of people in conditions of reduced oxygen concentration. With that was drawn an analogy with staying in mountains (oxygen concentration is standard (20,9%) + low atmosphere pressure) and OxyReduct atmosphere (normal pressure + reduced oxygen concentration).

Selection, design, installation and service maintenance of the fire prevention system demands right approach and experience of working with such equipment.

Firex Ltd. has skilful technical staff that passed courses in Germany and has appropriate certificates from Wagner Austria GmbH manufacturing company for installation and maintenance of OxyReduct system. Great experience of our company in the market of fire security services allows us to devise, agree, realize installation, carry out staring-up of the fire prevention system at the site of the customer.