By Alan M. Petrillo
Industrial firefighters face big challenges when dealing with massive amounts of flammable products, so the rigs they use typically carry a big foam system.
Foam examples include the Williams Hot Shot II, FoamPro AccuMax® Fury™ and Fusion™, Hale SmartFOAM, Waterous AQUIS™ ULTRAFLOW, Pierce Husky, and Rosenbauer HYDROMATIC foam systems.
Williams Fire & Hazard Control
James Morgan, applications and engineering manager for Williams Fire & Hazard Control, says his company’s Hot Shot II Foam System combines the proven reliability of balanced pressure technology with the modern efficiency of a hydrostatic drive powered from the chassis transmission via a power takeoff (PTO). Morgan says Hot Shot II is a hydraulically driven demand system that uses a positive displacement foam pump and pressure control circuit to provide foam concentrate supply at a pressure balanced or matched to that of the fire water pump.
1 The control panel for the Williams Fire & Hazard Control Hot Shot II foam system. (Photo 1 courtesy of Williams Fire & Hazard Control.)
The combination of the pressure control circuit and the variable displacement hydraulic drive system regulates and adjusts the foam pump output, independent of engine or PTO speed, to maintain the proper pressure balance as foam concentrate demand increases or decreases to meet total foam solution discharge requirements, he says. Based on specific installation chassis transmission, PTO drive ratio, and hydraulic drive pump/motor sizing, maximum foam pump output may be achieved at or near engine idle speeds, Morgan notes.
Williams offers a dozen versions of the Hot Shot II Foam System in both single-tank and dual-tank control models. Its ratio controller kits, which include the ratio controller, metering valve, and foam check valve, run from 2-inch to 8-inch ratio controller sizes and can include remote metering controls.
Williams also makes the WATP 500, which can proportion Class B foam up to 4,000 gallons per minute (gpm) at 1% foam proportioning, the Around the Pump 1500 that will proportion Class B foam at up to 4,500 gpm at 1% foam solution, and the Thunderstorm® that will proportion