Firefighting foam is a foam that’s used for effective fire suppression. As we all know, water is generally used to combat most firefighting situations. However, when it comes to burning liquids like crude oil or heavy fuel oil, any water applied to it will begin to boil, resulting in the water expanding into steam causing the burning fuel to overflow from containment and the fire to spread. That is why firefighting foam is the solution in times of such hazards. Its role is to cool the fire, coat the fuel to prevent its contact with oxygen and thus suppressing overall combustion.
The quality of the foam concentrate is essential to ensure smooth fire fighting operations. Storage under improper conditions for long periods of time can impact the quality of the foam and cause dilution, contamination etc. Fire Fighting Foam Testing and Analysis at Atlas Lab ensures regulatory compliance of international norms and ship and crew safety. Atlas Lab provides testing services for firefighting foam for analysis of low, medium, and high expansion foam. The testing for Fire Fighting Foam is carried out as per international standards like EN 1568, ISO 7203, IMO MSC.1 / Circ.1312, and MSC Circ. 670 specifications. The various tests carried out for Fire Fighting Foam are pH, Appearance, Specific Gravity @ 20 deg, Miscibility, Pour Point, Small scale fire test etc. International Maritime Organisation, SOLAS, and International safety organizations warrant that firefighting foam concentrates should be tested on a six-monthly or yearly basis.
Thus routine monitoring of Fire Fighting Foam Concentrates is required for cargo and passenger ships, barges, tankers, bulk carriers, tug boats, terminals, oil rigs, and offshore platforms which ensures ship and crew safety. We at Atlas Lab provide an extremely quick turnaround time for the testing and analysis reporting for your fire fighting foam samples. We cater to clients of various industries on a global scale at a cost-effective price.
Class A Foams are designed mainly for controlling wildfires, forest fires, bush fire and wild land fire and is now used for class A fires, such as structure fires. The surface tension of the water is lowered, which wets fuels and suppresses fire and thereby prevents reignition. Class A foam concentrates combine wetting agents and foaming agents for use in a wide variety of firefighting applications.
Class B Foams are the ideal fire suppression choice for hazards involving combustible and flammable liquids. It creates a foam blanket that sucks up the air or oxygen required for burning and ignition and thus prevents the release of fuel vapour. Hence Class B Foams are used mainly in the Marine industry.
Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) are available mainly as 1%, 3% or 6%, these foams are low-expansion foams. They are low viscosity and have an expansion rate of less than 20 times. This means that they are mobile and can cover large areas, quickly.
The expansion ratio of medium-expansion foams is 20–100. This makes it useful for applications such as plastic, rubber, and liquid fires or flooding shallow areas.
High-expansion foams are best for enclosed areas that need to be filled quickly, as their expansion rate is over 200–1000.
Alcohol Resistant Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AR-AFFF)- resistant foams work specifically to create a protective layer between the foam and the burning material, which prevents the alcohols in the burning material from breaking down the foam and rendering it ineffective. In areas such as a basement, mine shaft or a ship's hold where volume fire control is required, a high expansion foam generator can be used to fill an entire room with large amounts of very light expanded foam bubbles.
