WO1991017797A1

WO1991017797A1 - A portable fire extinguisher

Info

Publication number: WO1991017797A1
Application number: PCT/SE1991/000347
Authority: WO
Inventors: Roger Johansson; Per-Olov Ryhr
Original assignee: Roger Johansson; Ryhr Per Olov
Priority date: 1990-05-18
Filing date: 1991-05-16
Publication date: 1991-11-28
Also published as: AU7971791A; SE9001797L; SE465911B; SE9001797D0

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus for realizing a portable fire extinguisher with a container (1) which contains a suitable extinguishing medium, and machine devices (4) for expelling the extinguishing medium from the container (1) in a manner suitable for firefighting.

Description

A PORTABLE FIRE EXTINGUISHER

The present invention relates to an apparatus for re¬ alizing a portable fire extinguisher.

Prior art portable fire extinguishers are substantially only of the excess-pressure or pressure-charged type, for which reason the container holding the fire extinguishing medium must be of the pressure vessel type and satisfy the accepted norms and standards for pressure vessels. This implies inconveniences of various types which all, how- ever, entail extra costs and difficulties in, above all, recharging and operating the extinguisher because of its relatively high weight. A portable fire extinguisher of the pressure-charged type can, of course, be recharged or topped-up, but this requires both specialist skills and special equipment, this work being carried out at special¬ ist firms or the local fire department. This implies a considerable restriction of the scope of use of a portable fire extinguisher of the pressure-charged type, since, after having been discharged while fighting a fire or a blaze, it cannot immediately be recharged for continued fighting of the same fire, which may entail dire conse¬ quences, above all as additional action over and above only one attempt at extinguishing the fire may perhaps have given substantially better fire-fighting results.

The task forming the basis of the present invention is to obviate or at least reduce the drawbacks inherent in prior art portable fire extinguishers and to devize a novel, rapid repeat action portable fire extinguisher. This task is solved according to the present invention in that the apparatus disclosed by way of introduction is characterized in that a container with a suitable ex¬ tinguishing medium is provided with machine devices for expelling the extinguishing medium from the container in a manner suitable for ire-fighting. The machine expulsion devices comprise a pump and a trigger device. The pump is interconnected with an electric motor for driving there¬ of. The electric motor is coupled in to an electronic cir- cuit with a relay for feeding a driving current to the motor from a pack of battery cells, preferably recharge¬ able. The electronic. circuit includes an operating current circuit which is coupled to the operating coil of the re¬ lay via a trigger contact and includes a low voltage de- tector which is coupled to a buzzer for generating an acoustic signal and/or an LED for generating an optic sig¬ nal when the voltage across the battery pack falls below a predetermined level. The trigger contact is coupled to a squeeze grip for closing the contact and opening of a valve (if present) to the interior of the container. The pressure side of the pump is coupled to a hose which ex¬ tends a distance out from the container and is possibly provided with a nozzle of suitable type for creating a suitable configuration of the jet of extinguishing med- ium. The pump with the electric motor and battery pack are housed in an immersion tube which, at the top, is in the form of a lid with the electronic circuit, the squeeze grip and a hose outlet, the lid being provided with a suitable mount for cooperation with a fitting mount on the container.

The present invention realizes a portable fire extinguish¬ er of extremely simple design and construction without, to this end, needing to waive any of the established func- tional and efficiency norms and standards for fire ex¬ tinguishers of this type. Since the container with the ex¬ tinguishing medium need not be under pressure, it may con¬ sist, for example, of a simple plastic container. This constitutes a decisive weight saving, which may be put to use for a larger quantity of extinguishing medium, easier operation, etc. Moreover, a portable fire extinguisher ac¬ cording to the present invention is of extremely rapid and simple repeat action, which implies that it is recharge¬ able in an extremely rapid and simple manner. Thus, a portable fire extinguisher according to the present in¬ vention may be recharged and discharged a number of times while fighting one and same fire. The number of times the portable fire extinguisher according to the invention can be recharged and discharged is in principle limited only by the capacity of the battery pack.

The present invention will be described in greater detail hereinbelow with particular reference to the accompanying Drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an ap¬ paratus according to one embodiment of the present in¬ vention. Fig. 2 is a coupling diagram for an apparatus ac¬ cording to the present invention.

The embodiment of an apparatus according to the present invention illustrated in Fig. 1 has a container 1 of suit¬ able material, for example plastic, which may be at least partly transparent so that the level of extinguishing med- ium in the container can readily be checked and thereby controlled. The extinguishing medium normally consists of water, possibly with some form of powder additive for rendering the extinguishing operation more efficient. At the top, the container 1 is provided with a lid 2 with suitable mount for cooperation with a corresponding mount on the container 1. An immersion tube 3 for a number of rechargeable battery cells of, for example, the NiCd type is secured in the lid 2. The lid 2 may also be provided with an openable and closable valve of, for example, the hose clamp type or other suitable type. A pump 4 is dis¬ posed at the lower end of the immersion tube 3, the pump being combined with a suitable electric motor and provided with a suction pipe 5 and a pressure pipe 6. The pressure pipe 6 is interconnected with a hose 7 which extends through the lid. Ideally, the free end of the hose 7 is provided with a nozzle for creating the desired config¬ uration of the jet of extinguishing medium.

The lid 2 is fitted with a handle 8 and a squeeze grip 9 pivotally journalled thereon. A sealed safety ring 10 is disposed between the handle 8 and the squeeze grip 9. An air valve is disposed in the container 1 or the lid 2 to prevent partial vacuum from occurring in the container 1 during discharge.

In the lid 2, there is further provided an electronic cir¬ cuit which is shown in greater detail in Fig. 2 and has a contact K which is advantageously disposed between the handle 8 and the squeeze grip 9 and which is switched when the squeeze grip 9 is urged against the handle 8, and at the same time the valve (if present) in the lid 2 may hereby be opened. As will be apparent in the coupling dia- gram according to Fig. 2, switching of the contact K will entail the supply of a current from a battery B through a coil in a relay Re, the coil being connected in parallel with a safety diode D1. On the occurrence of the current, the contact of the relay Re will be closed and entail sup- ply of a current from the battery B through a motor M which is interconnected with the pump 4 for operation thereof. The contact K is disposed such that it estab¬ lishes a communication between the positive pole of the battery B and the input 8 of the IC circuit IC1 while the squeeze grip 9 is unactuated, and breaks this communi¬ cation on switching by means of the squeeze grip 9 for starting the motor . This motor is normally a permanent magnetized d.c. motor and the pump 4 is normally a water pressure pump of the centrifugal type. The rated voltage of the electric motor M is preferably 12 V, this voltage being sufficient for the pump 4 to provide a supply pres¬ sure of 2.5 bar and a suitable capacity. -5- An integrated circuit IC1 is further coupled in over the battery B, the input 8 of the circuit being coupled to the positive pole of the battery B via the contact K, and whose input 4 is coupled to the negative pole of the bat- tery B. The output 7 of the IC circuit is coupled to the positive pole of the battery via a ca'pacitor C which serves to equalize the level from the integrated circuit IC1. The input 6 of the IC circuit is coupled to the pos¬ itive pole of the battery B via a resistor R1, and to the negative pole of the battery B via a resistor R2. These two resistors R1 and R2 also serve for regulating the level of ie integrated circuit IC1. The output 7 is further coupled to the positive pole of the battery B via an additional integrated circuit IC2 which is a blinker circuit and whose output is coupled to a loudspeaker H and to the negative pole of the battery B via a diode D1 and a resistor R3 which are connected in series. The diode D2 is an LED for optic marking of a low voltage level. The res¬ istor R3 serves for limiting the current through the LED D2. The loudspeaker H is a buzzer for acoustic marking of a low voltage level. If the battery voltage falls below a predetermined level, the buzzer H will be activated inter¬ mittently and the LED D2 will become operational. Since the contact K, on switching by means of the squeeze grip 9 for starting the motor M, breaks the communication between the positive pole of the battery B and the input 8, func¬ tion of the low voltage circuit section with the IC cir¬ cuit IC2, the buzzer H and the LED D1 will be impeded.

An apparatus according to the present invention can ob¬ viously function extraordinarily well as a repeat action (rechargeable) fire extinguisher. The nozzle on the hose is easy to aim towards the source of a. fire and, on actu¬ ation of the squeeze grip 9 after removal of the safety ring 10, the contact K is closed, a valve (if present) is opened and the pump 4 is started. The pump pressure gen¬ erated is sufficient to impart to the extinguishing medium that speed which is required in accordance with accepted standards. If the fire is extinguished without the ex¬ tinguishing medium being completely expelled from the con¬ tainer, discharge may be discontinued by releasing the squeeze grip . Any possible fire flare-up can be ex- tinguished by reactuating the squeeze grip 9 for closing the contact K. If the charge of extinguishing medium is wholly expended, the container 1 can be recharged by re¬ moving the lid 2 and replenishing the charge of ex¬ tinguishing medium. Naturally, there is nothing to prevent the container 1 from being provided with a specific re¬ plenishment opening. It is further possible to move the lid 2 with the immersion tube 3 to another container which is charged with extinguishing medium. This container need not necessarily be of the same type as the container 1.

Many modifications are conceivable without departing from the spirit and scope of the inventive concepts as defined in the appended Claims.

Claims

1. A portable fire extinguisher in which a pressureless container (1) with a suitable extinguishing medium is pro¬ vided with a pump (4) and a trigger device (9) for expel¬ ling extinguishing medium from the container (1) in a man- ner suitable for fire-fighting, the pump (4) being inter¬ connected with an electric motor (M) for driving there¬ of, characterized in that the pump (4) with the electric motor (M) is housed in an immersion tube (3) which, at the top, has the form of a lid (2) with an electronic circuit (Fig. 2), a squeeze grip (9) and a hose outlet, the lid (2) having a suitable mount for cooperation with a fitting mount on the container (1) .

2. The portable fire extinguisher as claimed in Claim 1, characterized in that the electric motor (M) is coupled in to the electronic circuit, which includes a relay (Re) for feeding a driving current to the motor (M) from a pack of battery cells (B), preferably rechargeable, the pack being housed in the immersion tube (3).

3. The portable fire extinguisher as claimed in Claim 2, characterized in that the electronic circuit includes an operating current circuit which is coupled to the op¬ erating coil of the relay (Re) via a trigger contact (K) and includes a low voltage detector (IC1), which is coupled to a buzzer (H) for generating an acoustic signal and/or an LED (D2) for generating an optic signal when the voltage across the battery pack (B) falls below a pre¬ determined level.

4. The portable fire extinguisher as claimed in Claim 3, characterized in that the trigger contact (K) is coupled to a squeeze grip (9) for closing the contact (K) and opening a valve (if present) provided to the interior of the container (1).

5. The portable fire extinguisher as claimed in Claims 1 and 4, characterized in that the pressure side (6) of the pump (4) is coupled to a hose (7) which extends a distance out from the container (1) and is possibly fitted with a nozzle of suitable type for achieving a suitable config¬ uration of the jet of extinguishing medium.