June 12, 2012

FDB2 fire and gas damper provides the best performance according todays requirements

Safety is the most important factor especially in demanding conditions, such as on board ships and offshore platforms, where a possible fire could put people's life in serious risk unless necessary precautions are taken. Therefore it is essential that the equipment chosen to prevent fire progression in ventilation ductwork is top-class.

Fire and gas dampers are typically installed to prevent the spread of fire, smoke and gas between fire zones. Because smoke and toxic gases can be more dangerous than fire itself, it is important that the fire dampers also prevent smoke from spreading. Halton Marine is the manufacturer supplying smoke-tight fire dampers.

PERFORMANCE OF FDB2 SPEAKS FOR ITSELF
FDB2 is truly designed for fire. Tightness of FDB2 improves substantially under fire conditions. Typically, steel deformation during fire increases the damper leakage and allow the smoke and other toxic gases to spread out into the ductwork. The patented blade structure of Halton's FDB2 fire and gas damper contains special seals that are effective up to 300 ēCelsius degrees and thermally activated graphite seals that expand when the temperature reaches 150 ēC in the ductwork. The construction of the damper contains a lockable blade structure. In addition, the seal has been forced to expand between the end of the blade and the cleat.

Few years back, the NORSOK specification for gas tight dampers demanded that the leakage in normal conditions should not be more than 300 m3/hr/m2 at 2000 Pa pressure (equivalent to Class 2 blade leakage according to EN1751).  The Halton Marine FDB2 fire and gas damper as well as UTG shut-off, balancing and gas damper, both fulfilling the requirements of Class 3 blade leakage, far exceeded this requirement.
Nowadays the NORSOK specification refers in full to the requirement written within ISO15138 which states the damper should achieve Class 3 blade leakage, equivalent to approximately 150 m3/hr/m2 at 2000 Pa. Halton Marine encourages using dampers that meet todays demanding offshore requirements.

In addition to normal and fire conditions FDB2, FEX, UTG and BRD dampers were tested for over three months in cold conditions (-35 ēC.). The dampers operated normally for the full duration of the test. After cold conditions, fire dampers were tested in fire conditions. The temperature in the test chamber was set to 1000 ēC. and the test pressure to 1000 Pa. The test result show that the cold conditions had no affect on the operation of the fire damper.

For more information and availability, please do not hesitate to contact Halton Marine sales department.