Several activation methods for the Aerosol Mini Fire Extinguishers

There are always many clients will ask how to start up the aerosol mini fire extinguishers after they buy from us, and many people know about electrical activation but do not know of some other activation methods we have; some customers even don’t know how to choose the different activation for their product, and don’t know which activation method of our aerosol generators is better.

ABOUT these questions and doubts about aerosol fire extinguisher’s activation matter, hereby we describe clearly as follows:

ONE: ELECTRICAL ACTIVATION

The electrical activation method, in other words, is “activated by electrical cable”, “electrically activation”, or “activated by outer power supply”.
You can imagine that electrical activation needs an external power supply and need electrical cable to connect the aerosol-based mini fire extinguishers to the power supply.

Electrical activation is always used with fire alarm systems, including fire control panels, heat detectors, smoke detectors, fire alarms, manual call points, start buttons, hotter and horn, etc.

Many fire project installations are using this ELECTRICAL ACTIVATION type of aerosol generator, because other systems like FM200 fire suppression, IG541 fire suppression, CO2 fire suppression, and ABC Super-Fine Dry Chemical fire suppression systems all need electrical activation and fire alarm systems when clients turn to use our aerosol fire extinguisher system instead they will require electrically activation type.

So the activation type of mini aerosol generator is mostly for covering a small room for total flooding, such as the data processing room, the computer room, the power generator room, the library, the museums, etc.

TWO: THERMAL CORD ACTIVATION (175℃ or 300℃）

Do not know what is the thermal cord? okay please see the below photo to show you what it looks like:

Normally the Thermal Cord has 2 rated temperatures, one is 175℃ and another is 300℃, the blue color is 175℃ and the red color is 300℃.
Most users choose the 175℃ type, but if you like you can install it in the extra high-temperature environment room then you can choose 300℃ of thermal cord.

Do not know how the thermal cord works? okay please also see the below:

Working Principle of the Thermal Cord:

• 1. When there is fire and the fire flame gets the touch of the thermal cord, or when there is a fire and the environment temperature arrives at its rated temperature (175℃ or 300℃), the thermal cord will get burning(see above photo).
• 2. After the thermal cord burns to the inside of the generator, Aerosol fire extinguishing agents will act on fire protection zones.
• 3. So the aerosol generator is extinguishing the fire.

Hereby we can see that it is automatic to activate the generator when there is a fire, and the thermal cord can detect the fire itself.

This is simple and easy to start up the generator, so the thermal cord activation type of aerosol generators is most used in the following:

• 1. Electrical cabinets.
• 2. Control panels.
• 3. Electrical box.
• 4. Battery box.
• 5. Auto car, bus, truck engine.
• 6. CNC machines.
• 7. ATMs.
• 8. And some other small enclosed or semi-enclosed places.

For more details about thermal cords please also refer to this article Spontaneous combustion type thermal cord detector

THREE: THERMO BULB ACTIVATION

Thermo bulb another named “glass bulb“, is a thermal activation device that can be assembled in the aerosol body, to form a standalone fire suppression.

The thermal bulb has rated temperatures of 57℃, 68℃, 79℃, and 93℃.

The working principle of thermo bulb aerosol is like this listed below:

• When the ambient temperature reaches the rated temperature of the thermo bulb at 57℃ (68℃, 79℃, 93℃), the glass bulb will be broken.
• After the glass bulb breaks, the small stainless steel striker on the head will fall off and forcefully strike the piezoelectric ceramic, then the piezo electronic ceramic will generate a small current to the aerosol ignitor to start the whole aerosol fire extinguisher.

The thermal bulb has two main characteristics: firstly, it actively detects the ambient temperature, but can automatically activate the mini fire extinguishers.

About thermo bulb, there is another article that you also may be interested in, please refer to this link: Technical Ways to Start-up Aerosol Systems Successfully

And see the SECOND WAY in the article.

FOUR: COMBINED ELECTRICAL AND THERMAL CORD ACTIVATION

It means the activation modes are: electric start together with thermal cord start.

FIVE: COMBINED ELECTRICAL AND THERMO BULB ACTIVATION

It means that: the electric start works with the thermo bulb start.