Aerosol fire suppression installed on railway locomotive

Railway locomotives have hundreds of years of development history and many years of technical innovation, today we talk about the fire protection of railway locomotives, First of all, we should talk about the knowledge of railway locomotives.

Knowledge of railway locomotives and rolling stock

The railway locomotive itself has no power device, whether it is a passenger locomotive or freight locomotive, we must connect many carriages to form a train, then it can move only after being pulled by a locomotive. Therefore, the locomotive is the basic power of railway transportation.

There are many kinds of locomotives for the railway, according to the original power of the locomotive, there are Steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, and electric locomotives.

Steam Locomotive

The application of steam locomotives has 170 years of history. It converts the heat energy of a fuel (coal, oil, wood) into mechanical energy through a steam engine,

It converts the heat energy of a fuel (coal, oil, wood) into mechanical energy through a steam engine, to make the train move. The components of a steam locomotive are the boiler, the steam turbine, the frame, the coal and water cars, the coupler, the buffers and the brakes.

The steam locomotives are characterised by low thermal efficiency, high energy consumption and low conveying capacity, and the people of the world no longer use them.

Diesel Locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a locomotive powered by a diesel engine, its characteristics are high thermal efficiency, long continuous working time, suitable for long-distance operation.

The diesel locomotives have two styles: electric drive and hydraulic drive.

• For electric drive, it is driven by the diesel engine to turn mechanical energy into electric energy, supplying the electric energy to the traction motor, and then transmitting it to the locomotive gear to make the locomotive run.
• Hydraulic drive is equipped with a set of hydraulic transmission devices between the diesel engine and the locomotive driving wheel. The torque output by the diesel engine is transmitted to the locomotive wheelset through the transmission device to make the locomotive produce traction.

Electric Locomotive

Concept and Description of Electric Locomotives

The electric locomotive itself does not carry electric energy, it depends on obtaining electric energy from the catenary wire along the way. and the traction motor drives the locomotive forward.

The power plant sends 110 to 220 kv three-phase power frequency AC power through the transmission line to the railway traction substation, which supplies 25 to 27.5 kv single-phase power frequency AC power to the catenary for electric locomotives.

An electric locomotive mainly contains the vehicle body, running gear, under-frame, coupler and buffer device, braking device, and a complete set of electrical equipment.

The electric locomotive has the advantages of large power, fast starting speed, good at climbing, easy to implement high-speed and heavy-load.

At present, due to the extensive development of electric power and the continuous development of new energy power, the electric locomotive has become the most widely used.

The high-speed rail, subway, and light rail we use are all driven by electric locomotives.

Fire Protection Issues and Solutions for Electric Locomotives

However, no matter what type of locomotive, including electric locomotive, they will produce a lot of heat when they are operating.

There are many pipeworks on a locomotive, making the internal space limited, which can easily lead to thermal runaway after long periods of travelling, ageing wiring, and hot weather.

The loss of a locomotive caused by fire after a thermal runaway is huge, and the economic loss is thousands of dollars. Therefore, we need to consider the issue of locomotive fire prevention, and it is necessary to select a suitable locomotive fire protection system.

As we mentioned earlier there is a lot of pipework and limited space, so the fire extinguishing system for locomotives should have the following characteristics:

• No damage to the locomotive pipeline, parts, or engine compartment.
• The volume of the product should be small, and it will not occupy a lot of space.
• Easy to install and debug the system.
• Sensitive response. Once the railway locomotive gets getting thermal runaway, it needs to take action to suppress the flame immediately.

At present, large-scale gas, foam, and water-mist fire extinguishing systems are not suitable for railway locomotives. the remaining two products are most likely to be the choice of locomotive fire protection, are: aerosol fire protection or fire trace tube suppression system.

Hereby let us compare these two systems: the Aerosol System and the Fire Trace System.

For Aerosol System

The Aerosol system has the following main advantages:

• It is pipe-less and without pressure to work.
• Releasing clean aerosol-forming agent.
• Size is very small and compact, normally installed inside the engine compartment of a locomotive.

For the Fire Trace System

The fire trace system has the following main advantages:

• It has white or red pipes for transporting fire extinguishing agents.
• It normally works with 1 to 5 Mpa pressure.
• Releasing clean HFC-22yea or NOVEC 1230 (FK 5112) extinguishing agent.
• It has a larger size than the aerosol device.
• In general, its installation position is on the outside of the electrical cabinet or engine compartment.

Therefore, from the point of view of safety and convenience, the aerosol fire extinguishing system will be more suitable for railway locomotives.

Many people worry that they don’t know how to install aerosol systems on railway locomotives it is very simple to install on the railway locomotive. Generally, the aerosol device has its mounting bracket, clamp, and screw, just drill a few holes at the proper position on the locomotive (usually the position prone to fire), and then fix it with the mounting brackets.

Magnet-attached mounting is a simpler and more convenient way of mounting. We mount the fire extinguishing device directly to the iron plate of the locomotive engine.

The main steps in wiring are as follows

• 1. Connect the fire extinguishing device to the battery on the locomotive with a flexible cable.
• 2. Then install the start button and alarm device in the cab.

Our dealers around the world have many installation cases, in the following we list some of them:

• China high-speed train.
• Wuhan rail of China.
• Singapore rail.
• Euro-star high-speed train.
• Thailand high-speed train.
• Bandung High-Speed Rail.
• South Africa Railway.

Choosing an aerosol fire suppression system as a railway locomotive fire protection solution is feasible.