With another tragedy in racing, we've been asked to put together a video about fire suppression. In this video, we cover some of the basic info such as the type of systems available, the chemical used, installation recommendations, and we also explain some specifics about a couple of systems on the market. To see all of the fire suppression systems we offer, visit crateinsider.c...
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Kate: Today, we have a topic to talk about with fire suppression, because we've had another tragedy in this sport, and I'm very sorry to hear that. And so, one of our customers came to me and said, "Hey Kate, I know you've got an article, but please do a video on fire suppression." So here we are. When it comes to fire suppression, some of the basic things is that there are three areas of the race car that we want to protect. One of those would be the fuel cell area. The second would be the driver, and the third would be the engine compartment. Those are the three areas that we want to cover.
Now, the difference between a fire suppression system today versus old-school fire extinguishers, old-school fire extinguishers had a fluid, like a powder or a spray that came out and covers all of this with foam and this mess. Today's racing motorsports fire suppression systems, they started out in like 1984. That was when they first came out, and they started with halon. Now, halon is a greenhouse gas, and so, it was banned by the EPA. So as a substitute, it now uses DuPont's FE-36. Now, what FE-36 does, the chemical, is it displaces oxygen in the air and that makes the fire go out.
Now, one thing with that, to know about that ... Now, it's not going to suffocate the driver, because with fire, it takes five times more oxygen to feed a fire than it does for a human to breathe. So what we're really trying to do is get that oxygen out of the way, so that the fire has no more fuel to be able to burn. Now, when it comes to the systems, there's also two other things to know. You'll see manual and you'll see automatic. So, a manual system, what that refers to is that you've got this pull cable, which is in the driver's compartment. A driver can just pull that cable and it will activate the system.
The other option is automatic. We'll see on this system here, where we've got this piece, this is a temperature sensor. When this temperature sensor reaches 170 degrees, it is automatically going to break, and it is going to set off the system. So with that, you'll see some systems that are just manual, some that are automat and some that are a combination of both of those. Before we talk into some specific systems, I want to talk about the installation as well. Here is an installation diagram. There are several areas where you could put your fire suppression system.
And now that you've seen that, something else to know about installation is that you want to make sure that when the system is installed, that you keep your welders or any kind of welding away from those stainless steel braided lines, because that can damage this system as well. When you're pressure washing, be careful of this area around the temperature sensor, because this is ... I'm not sure if it's glass, but it's a breakable material. And so, there are some guys that have been known to hit it really hard with a pressure washer. It's just one of those things to be careful of.
Now, to tell you about a couple of different systems, the system I have sitting right here is this is Fire Bottle AMRC-1000. Now, this one is equipped with four lines. You run the lines yourself, but it has all the nozzles that you need and installation instructions. One of these nozzles is automatic, as you can see. And normally, this is put by your fuel cell. So that's one of the areas of the car that has a driver you cannot see. So this temperature sensor, when it hits that 170 degrees as I mentioned, is automatically going to set off that system, so that it can put out that fire.