Fire-prevention technology is proved in storage facility

A fire has been prevented in an unmanned storage facility in Austria by Wagner’s OxyReduct system. The Roco automatic storage facility has a capacity of 3000 pallets and is unmanned during normal operation. Following an upgrade to the software controlling the rack feeders, a failure occurred. Due to a fault in the software, some pallets were not stored correctly and obstructed the operation of the two rack feeders. The safety system in one of the feeders failed, the motor overheated, and smoke was generated from the motor windings. The whole storage area is protected by OxyReduct, which continuously adds nitrogen to the air to reduce the oxygen concentration so that a fire cannot start. The Wagner Titanus ASD system quickly detected the smoke and raised an alarm. The support team was not on the premises, so the fault with the motor went unnoticed for some time. Wagner UK believes that the failure would almost certainly have caused a fire. If traditional fire protection has been installed, a sprinkler or other extinguishing system would have been activated — with further damage and disruption. In the event, the only downtime was to replace the motor. Over 120 organisations in the UK and Europe have installed OxyReduct in a wide range of applications. They include IT/comms suites, archives, museums, cold/freezer stores and warehousing.

Related links:

• www.wagner.de/english