Project Summary

Machinery Plant Space in Materials Recycling

National services are often taken for granted, without thinking about the considerable investment into businesses and infrastructure that goes on behind the scenes.

Everyday processes are often assumed to just work; however, they are often driven by large, expensive pieces if machinery that require a lot of configuration, maintenance and monitoring. Not to mention the initial expense of the machinery, and the costs associated if it becomes damaged.

A large, UK-based materials processing company approached us for plant-specific protection or large materials processing machines, with a specific interest of protecting the machinery items which are often running for upwards of 20 hours a day.

We surveyed several their sites across the UK to understand the areas they wanted protecting, the risks involved at each particular location and what the best solution would be after speaking to each individual site manager. Their primary concern was machinery overheating, leading to increased fire-risks if the machinery is unmonitored for a short period of time.

The end solution was a self-contained cylinder based open-head deluge system, which led to ‘total flooding’ in the particular risk area. This consisted of a series of water and nitrogen cylinders, equal to the risk and discharge time required by the client, and mechanical activation valves linked to an electronic system control panel. The primary source of activation was using a series of smoke and heat detectors, set up in a double-knock arrangement, to ensure no false activations. Once a ‘confirmed fire’ signal was received by the control panel, an electrical signal was sent to the solenoid valve which allows for a full system discharge through all open nozzles. This was set for the extent of the risk from the machinery, so that no surrounding area was affected by fire spread.

The solution was compact and cylinder arrangements flexible to enable the engineers to install into a variety of different spaces as deemed best by the site management teams.

The system is serviced annually, without a wet discharge test, however all components and electrical control systems are tested for full system integrity.