Ultra Fog’s water mist ensures optimal fire safety on new supply ship

On a ship, an effective fire-extinguishing system is vital. If your ship is on fire, you cannot send for the fire brigade or escape. The company Ultra Fog has devised a system with which a fire can be extinguished very effectively and with minimum use of water. By spraying high pressure water via a mist nozzle in the area where the fire is raging, the fire can be brought under control in no time. The Combat Support Ship that Damen Naval is building for the Royal Netherlands Navy will be equipped with Ultra Fog’s water mist system.

In 1992, Swede Anders Kjellberg devised a new system for fighting fires. For the Swedish company Ultra Fog, founded a year earlier, he designed and patented a high-pressure water nozzle that sprays the water used to extinguish a fire into a mist. Ultra Fog now sells this system all over the world. The company has been in Italian hands since 2010.

Ultra Fog previously supplied the water sprinkler system on board the four Holland Class OPVs (in service 2012-2014) and the Joint Support Ship HNLMS Karel Doorman, the largest Naval vessel in the Dutch fleet, which were commissioned in 2015; all ships that were also built by Damen Naval. The system is as ingenious as it is obvious. The misted water spreads through a burning room at high speed and cools the room down immediately, causing the heat and the fire to rapidly diminish in intensity. Moreover, the water mist takes the oxygen away from the fire, so that it can no longer flare up.

The soot damage caused by the fire is less than when using sprinklers, because the soot particles in the room adhere to the fog particles. And last but not least, there is much less water damage. “When you walk through the mist, you don’t get as wet as when you walk through the rain,” explains Mariecke. But there is another advantage. “Because the misting is done at such a high pressure, you don’t need as thick a pipe as for a sprinkler system. This means that you need less space on board to lay the pipes.”

“It is true that our system is relatively more expensive to buy than conventional sprinklers, because the components have to be made of high-quality materials in order to keep them clean.” According to Mariecke, Ultra Fog’s system ensures that a fire on board is controlled within one minute and completely extinguished within five to ten minutes. Ultra Fog supplies two types of water mist systems for ships: a system with open nozzles and dry pipes for use in engine rooms, plus a system for the accommodations with wet pipes where the nozzles only start spraying if a heat glass breaks.

This normally happens at a temperature of 57 degrees Celsius or more, but the glass can also break accidentally. “In consultation with DMO, to eliminate any risk of valuable equipment on board the Combat Support Ship getting wet, it was decided to install a system of open nozzles throughout the ship. In principle, these are operated manually.” The moment the water mist system starts producing mist through the nozzles in the event of a fire, the crew on the bridge can observe exactly where on the ship this is happening via the Platform Management System.

“Just like the propulsion and anchor gear, a good fire protection system is an important component for a ship,” concludes Mariecke. “These kinds of systems are also a high priority for the Royal Netherlands Navy. We are of course very happy to be of service to them in this regard.”