Re: [SGish] APC question

Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2001 02:12:14 -0700
From: "Ron Abitz" <abitz@richpoor.com>
Subject: Re: [SGish] APC question

One thing you should consider is that most if not all modern U.S. tracks
(at
least M1, M2-3 {bradleys}, 113 and variants) have a fire suppress system
that is triggered by fire or explosion that contains halon, a gass that
bonds with O2 makeing it unavalable to fuel the fire/explosion. Oh and
unadvalable to the crew/passangers so it is a real go Idea to get out.

Ron  (ex US army track mechanic)

err close but not quite... Halon systems are designed to support life
but
not the fire. I won't go into all the gory details but that is why
people
are still allowed to used them for mission critical systems ( Airport
control centres, hospitals etc) even though they are really bad for the
environment.

Newer systems use a mixture of gasses including nitrogen and CO2 but are
hard design for non fixed installations as you have to get the o2 levels
low enough to not support combustion but high enough to support
life....(strangely the CO2 is used to get the human breathing reflex to
take faster breaths and so survive in low O2 situations!)

(ex Fire Protection Engineer)

Flynn Richardson
Special Projects Manager
Unilever Australasia