How Our Vehicle Fire Suppression System Works

The Fire Shield vehicle fire suppression system is made of up of nine unique components, as shown below. These act in concert to quickly eliminate fires before serious damage is caused to your vehicles or vehicle operators are put at risk.

Each element of our system is linked, ensuring any fire is tackled within seconds of starting. Often, this is long before an operator would manually notice an issue with the vehicle.

Our system works to eliminate fires with a simple, three-step process.

Step one – recognising the issue

The process of suppressing the fire begins with our heat-sensitive line detector. Once activated, this connects the circuit and triggers the vehicle fire protection system.

The line detector is protected by plastic which melts when exposed to heat of 160oC or higher. As the plastic is the only barrier between the circuit connecting, it melting causes the circuit to connect and the system to activate.

Step two – sounding the alarm

At the moment of activation, the alarm system triggers. The alarm system consists of two external alarms, a strobe light and loud alarm, which alert all bystanders to the situation, and an internal control panel which begins flashing to alert the driver of the danger.

As soon as the driver is alerted by the alarms or control panel, they are able to press the vehicle emergency stop button in the cab and immediately exit to safety.

Step three- suppression

Activation of the emergency stop sequence immediately triggers the electric actuator. An actuator is a motor responsible for controlling a mechanism or system and is linked to the wet chem tank which contains our unique firefighting agent.

The actuator’s activation releases the tank contents to the sprinkler circuit, which sprays them evenly across the engine bay to control and extinguish the fire.

This process, from melting the plastic of the heat-sensitive line detector to tackling the fire takes less than a handful of seconds. When combined with the ability to recognise small fires incredibly early, you are given the best-possible chance of saving your vehicle and stopping the fire from spreading.

Contact us to find out more

If you would like to discover how our vehicle suppression systems could help you protect your fleet, contact our team today on 0800 975 5767. We have been helping companies protect their assets from fires for decades and know exactly what’s required to help you.