BY ALAN M. PETRILLO
Those municipal fire departments that have a large industrial facility in their districts face huge challenges in protecting such places along with the facility’s internal fire brigade. In many situations, large water flows are needed to control, contain, and extinguish a fire.
Industrial Pumpers
David Fieber, chief engineer for fire suppression products at Pierce Manufacturing Inc., says that Pierce’s high-flow industrial pumper came about as a result of customers telling Pierce they wanted to flow greater amounts of water. “We worked with Darley (W.S. Darley & Co.) to develop a pump to give more water,” Fieber says. “But, more water means bigger valves, which required new hydraulic actuators with enough torque to open and close those bigger valves. Also, we had to put in bigger pipes on the rig, as well as a new controller for the valve actuator, and still make the system as user-friendly as possible.”
1 This top-mount industrial pumper built by Pierce Manufacturing Inc. is shown drafting from a lake using three eight-inch 20-foot suction hoses with strainers and flowing 6,000 gpm through its three monitors. (Photos 1 and 2 courtesy of Pierce Manufacturing Inc.)
The resulting high-flow industrial pumper can be built on an Arrow XT or Velocity chassis, Fieber says, and requires a 600-horsepower (hp) Cummins ISX15 diesel engine. “At a six-foot draft height, using three eight-inch 20-foot suction hoses with strainers, we get 5,500 gallons per minute (gpm) at draft at 200 pounds per square inch (psi),” he notes. “The pumper will do more than 6,000 gpm at 100 psi and 10,000-plus gpm from a pressurized water source.”
Fieber says another thing industrial customers were seeking was a more accurate flowmeter, so Pierce created a flowmeter integral with the ratio controller that uses the Venturi effect to accurately measure flow range. “The pumper is available with the Husky 30, 60, 90, 160, 300, and 450 foam systems,” he adds.
Terry Planck, industrial sales specialist for E-ONE, says that Saudi Aramco came to E-ONE to build 10 industrial pumpers with 3,000-gpm and 4,000-gpm pumps and three monitors. “The pumpers have a Williams Fire & Hazard Control Ambassador 2x6 monitor (2,000 to 6,000 gpm) in the center and two Task Force Tips 2,000-gpm monitors on the rear corners,” Planck points out. “They can get in excess of 7,000 gpm through them.”
Planck says E-ONE also built an industrial pumper for CITGO in Lamont, Illinois, on a custom chassis with a Darley ZSM pump flowing 3,500 gpm at 100 psi, a 1,030-gallon foam tank, a Williams Fire & Hazard Control Ambassador 2x6 monitor in the middle, and two Task Force Tips 2,000-gpm monitors on the rear corners. “We’re also building the same type of rig for Imperial Oil in Sarnia, Canada, along with a 3,030-gallon f