Gloria Fire Extinguishers
Client
UTC Building and Industrial Systems
Description
Cartridge fire extinguishers
Date
2013
Activities
- Mechanical Engineering
- Production Support
- Prototyping
- Testing and Evaluation
GLORIA® is a range of cartridge-based fire extinguishers that includes intuitive semi-automatic charging, alongside established squeeze grip and push button formats.
Central to the development of these fire extinguishers was the use of the latest glass-filled polyamide engineering plastics technologies as a replacement material for the cylinder headcap, previously a high-cost metal component, to produce robust assemblies that exceed the rigorous pressure vessel requirements of EN3-8.
GLORIA is a part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).
DCA utilised their in-depth knowledge of plastics technology and processing in combination with their Finite Element and Moldflow analysis skills to enable us to replace safety critical metal extinguisher headcaps with new plastic components
Chris Fergusson, manager, extinguisher - research, development & engineering, UTC Climate, Controls & Security EMEA
DCA’s engineers worked closely with GLORIA® applying engineering analysis tools and their knowledge of the latest glass-filled polyamide technologies, to develop robust headcap assemblies that perform in excess of the mandated pressure vessel requirements of EN3-8.
Chris Fergusson commented “We have forged a close working relationship and DCA proved to be a very useful source of knowledge and support, with the ability to draw on a range of disciplines which complement our in-house expertise”.
“The quality of the design output provided by DCA was exceptional, in particular the manufacturing data pack. We received extremely positive feedback from the moulders to whom we released this data, one supplier claimed it was the most complete and comprehensive data pack they had received in their long experience of working with a range of automotive manufacturers and suppliers”.
Working with the DCA team has been a pleasure and they have acted as a seamless extension to our own design resources
Chris Fergusson
