Extinguish Metal Fires With Water? It’s a Bad Idea.

by Imperial Systems | Aug 9, 2016 | Uncategorized

Why water… or a regular fire extinguisher… will just make metal fires worse

The NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) is the authority on all things that relate to fire. In their Standard 484 on combustible metals they devote 108 pages to handling metals that burn.

Why? Because a metal fire isn’t an ordinary fire. While a chunk of metal generally won’t burn, turning metals into powders, dust, or fine particulate makes them dangerously flammable.  Then once the fire starts, putting it out isn’t easy.

First of all, metal fires often burn at more than 5000 degrees F. That’s hot enough to disassemble water into its component parts. One of those parts is hydrogen gas, which is not only flammable but explosive. In other words, putting water on these fires can be like literally feeding them more fuel.

Carbon dioxide won’t do the job either. While it will extinguish a regular fire by depriving it of oxygen, some burning metals can react with carbon dioxide to fuel the flames. A carbon dioxide fire extinguisher might make the fire worse. Plus, the blast of air can also send flaming metal dust flying in all directions. When the magazine “Popular Science” tried to demonstrate this, they set their cameraman’s gear on fire.

A Class D fire extinguisher is designed for metal fires. It contains dry materials that will not react with the metal and is at a lower pressure to avoid spreading the burning material.

So which metals are the top five most likely to result in an industrial accident?

Aluminum

While aluminum isn’t the most reactive metal on this list, it’s probably the most commonly used. That means grinding it, forming it, cutting it, and otherwise turning it into flammable particulate.

Magnesium

The main factor that makes magnesium such a dangerous fire is that it burns at incredibly high heat. Further, when burning it will react explosively with just about anything you put on it.

Lithium

This alkali metal (and its friends on the periodic table like sodium and potassium) in pure form is usually stored in oil, because it will react with air just sitting around in a room. Throwing a chunk of one of these alkali metals in water will cause an explosion as the metal reacts violently with water. Spraying water on these metals is a really bad idea and unlike most metals, they don’t even have to be on fire.

Titanium

This metal is very reactive with oxygen even at ordinary temperatures, forming a layer of oxide on the surface. At high temperatures, though, its reaction with oxygen becomes extremely fast, meaning that it burns very hot and very quickly.

Zirconium

While zirconium might make a nice fake diamond, allowing shavings, dust, or particulate to come into contact with an ignition source will start a fire. If that dust or scrap happens to be damp, the reaction of the burning metal with water is explosive.

These five flammable offenders account for many of the worst industrial metal fires, which have occurred in dumpsters and other waste storage, in transport vehicles, and during processing. Be aware, though, that almost ALL metals are flammable in dust form, and you should not try to put ANY of them out with a regular fire extinguisher. A Class D fire extinguisher is the only safe way to deal with burning metal. Prevention is even better: if you don’t have accumulated metal dust anywhere in your facility, there’s no opportunity for a dangerous fire to start. A dust collection system is one of the NFPA recommendations for controlling metal dust, and safety features such as airlocks, spark arrestors, and explosion venting can decrease the possibility of a serious fire.

Read more about the dangers of metal dust here and download our metal dust fire safety white paper here.

Trade Schools Are Struggling. Why?

by Imperial Systems | Aug 4, 2016 | Uncategorized

Trade Schools Matter and This is Why They’re Struggling

Employers are looking for people with technical and vocational skills and training. Many blue-collar employees make more money than a lot of college graduates. So why are so many trade schools seeing funding cuts and falling enrollment?

Learning a skilled trade is a solid investment in a future career, and it allows many people to pursue jobs that they love. But in the United States, the importance of these careers is often overlooked. Many programs focus on preparing students for college. Some people will enjoy and achieve success in college. Others are looking for a different kind of education, want to start a career more quickly, or just want to pursue something they enjoy doing.

Trade schools prepare students for a future where there’s a need and they are valuable. Skilled employees with quality training continue to be in demand. Trade schools provide an option for people who want to jump-start a technical career. They offer job choices for individuals who might otherwise fall into in low-paying, unskilled work.

Targets for Budget Cuts

Unfortunately, education is always on the chopping block for budget cuts. Vocational programs and trade schools are often hit with these cuts since they are not considered “necessary.” (How many times have you ever used anything that you learned in most of your “necessary” high school classes?). Not everyone excels at typical college prep education, and they need and deserve other options.

In many countries, skilled trades are a valid career option and schools encourage interested students with educational programs and training. In the United States, however, attending college is often the definition of “success”, and many people treat vocational education as less valuable or only for people who can’t handle college. Neither of those things is true. The social status conferred by a college degree may not be worth the cost and time invested when there are so many opportunities in skilled trades. Many people invest money in a college education only to find that they can’t afford it, don’t enjoy it, or want to start a career sooner rather than later.

Hitting trade schools and vocational programs with budget cuts takes away the opportunity for many students to find careers, and also takes away skilled employees that businesses need. And while these programs have their budgets chopped, students struggle to find financial aid to help them afford them.

Our Perspective on Trade Schools

At Imperial Systems, we know that the success of our company depends on the hard work of our team, and nobody would be sitting in the offices if there weren’t skilled people working in the shop to make the products our reputation is built on. How many other companies in the United States rely on people with technical and vocational skills? If you’re reading this, there’s an excellent chance that your company probably does. If you want to make sure there’s a supply of well-trained employees for your company when you need them, the future of trade schools matters to you.

References:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/why-we-need-vocational-education/2012/06/04/gJQA8jHbEV_blog.html

http://www.jff.org/blog/2014/02/26/importance-career-and-technical-education-expanding-opportunities

http://edlab.tc.columbia.edu/index.php?q=node/11936