Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/473140
March 2015 | EquipmentWorld.com 44 maintenance | continued of fuel, including debris. "The most important thing people can do is to keep that engine clean," Olson says. Overheated components. There are other sources of high heat that can catch you unawares, says Smyth. On heavy equipment overheated exhaust manifolds, seized bearings or locked brakes can generate enough heat to ignite many different sources of fuel, she says. Frayed wiring. Another source of ignition that shows up fre- quently in forensic investigations is frayed wiring. "I see a fair amount of damaged wiring, and a lot of that having to do with the addition of aftermarket equip- ment," Smyth says. Incorrectly installed wires can chafe against other components or the frame of the machine or rub against the articulating piece of a machine. Over time the wires' insulation Fire suppression systems For certain applications, aftermarket heavy equipment fi re suppressions systems are either required or recommended. These include landfi ll industry, wood products, timber harvesting, paper mills, coal and steel mills among others. The fi re hazards here are such that fi re suppression systems are used in everything from small skid steers to large dozers, wheel loaders and excavators, says Rod Cavallaro, vice president of AFEX Fire Suppression Systems. The mining industry is the biggest market for these systems, says Cavallaro, for a couple of reasons. One: the industry is super safety conscious. "They are always trying to protect their operators the best they can," he says. And on large mining equipment a fi re suppression system can give operators time to exit the vehicle safely. A second reason is the capital investment, with big mining trucks and shovels costing many millions of dollars. Third is productivity: if one shovel goes down due to fi re, it may sideline anywhere from eight to 15 trucks and take a year or more to get a replacement shovel. Today's heavy equipment fi re suppression systems range from simple to highly sophis- ticated. On the simplest manual systems the operator pulls the safety pin, activates the plunger and exits the equipment. More complex systems include sensors that auto- matically activate the fi re suppressant and/or shut down the engine to prevent the fan, fuel and hydraulic pumps from further spreading the fi re. Newer systems can also tie into equipment telematics to let fl eet managers know remotely if a system has been acti- vated or needs attention or maintenance. The latest evolution in the fi re suppres- sion world is the use of dual agents, putting both dry powder and liquid fi re suppression agents on one machine. "For the Tier 4 engines we're doing a dual agent concept where we have dry and liquid," Cavallaro says. "You get the fast knock down and excellent coverage of dry powders with the cooling element of a liquid. That will cool Tier 4 aftertreatment components and turbos and help remove them as a potential ignition source of a fi re." I Need Maximum Reliability 1+)/$ !,.*-) - 1$+!-+$/!0,-!'&$'$(-!,!&-,( .&&!0, 1*!+-!,*)&%#''!+( 2'*-+!(# 1.$&-$(!/0.-00 +.&$$&))&!+ 1(()/-$/!($+$+( !#()&)"0 1/$&&!$(( 1($/!+,&).(-$("--!+( 800-526-8817 | vanair.com New Hydraulic Driven Air Compressor with Enhanced Cooling Capability