Dry chemical powder extinguishers are ineffective against tyre fires
The company is excited to participate once again at the leading expo, where some 30 000 attendees gather to engage in solutions across the mining, industrial, electrical, and power industry sectors, I-CAT Environmental Solutions Head of the Fire division, Andro Gibhard comments.
“It’s a great platform for I-CAT, as it showcases all roleplayers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and enables us not only to display our products and solutions, but to be exposed to new technology and methods from other participants.
“The expo gives us access to the people we most want to reach, including engineers, safety personnel, and a number of other organisations that provide best-practice, top-end solutions in environmental management,” Gibhard highlights.
Developments in the mining space include recent tests conducted by Sasol and I-CAT, proving conclusively that dry chemical powder extinguishers are ineffective against rubber, conveyor belt and tyre fires, both encountered in underground mining. This means that many underground mines have little or no fire protection, posing a major health and safety risk to mineworkers.
In terms of its ongoing contribution to improved firefighting methodologies for the mining industry, the I-CAT Fire Division has compiled a totally new protection protocol for underground conveyor belt protection, including redundancy protection. The protocol has been tested against various test scenarios identified in a risk assessment.
Products to be showcased at this year’s expo include I-CAT’s water- and foam-mist fire extinguishers, based on its innovative T-Rotor technology. This not only has SABS approval, but European and major international accreditation as well.
In Africa’s highly-stressed freshwater resources environment, water-saving is another area of great concern, with I-CAT having developed an effective ‘green’ evaporation system that can be applied to reduce wastewater at mining operations.
“Water-effluent management is vital, not to mention financially-viable. Legislation will enforce the recycling and re-use of effluent water in industries in future, and our solutions can put mining in particular ahead of the curve.”
Gibhard adds that Electra Mining Africa 2018 will also allow I-CAT to generate leads for future projects, and to disseminate broader awareness about its solutions and technology. “With mining budgets in Africa increasingly under pressure, it is important for us to use the expo as a platform to showcase the value-add and cost-savings that we can offer the mining industry,” he concludes.
Visit I-CAT Environmental Solutions in Hall 5 Stand A03 at Electra Mining Africa 2018. For more information, visit https://www.electramining.co.za/
