When most people think about fire protection in a building, fire sprinkler systems immediately come to mind. Sprinkler systems have long been used to protect buildings and the people that use them. However, sprinkler systems are designed to protect the building, not its contents. And, in many settings, they can be a very costly form of fire protection because of the damage that water can do and the clean up required after they are used. Clean agent fire suppression systems are an ideal supplement to sprinkler systems to protect any type of assets that could be damaged by water.
Clean agent fire suppression systems disperse an inert gas or halo carbon gases to suppress a fire in its incipient stage before reaching the flame/heat stage that would activate the fire sprinkler system. The clean agent systems do not create a health risk for people, they are highly effective, electrically non conducting and leave no residue upon evaporation.
Clean Agent fire extinguishing systems are typically used to protect three dimensional enclosures containing high value assets that are vital for business continuity, and assets that cannot be protected by traditional sprinkler systems due to the potential for water damage. Typical examples of system applications include telecommunication facilities, clean rooms, data centres.
The three most common clean agents on the market today are Inert gas (Inergen, Nitrogen, Argonite), 3M Novec 1230 Fire Protection Fluid, and FM-200, which has been a mainstay of fire suppression systems for more than 20 years.
