Device at a Motor Vehicle

The present invention relates to a device at a motor vehicle, comprising an engine compartment having an engine received therein that is driven by flammable fuel, such as, e.g., petrol, gas or diesel, and that said engine compartment is surrounded by a protecting casing, an opening being arranged that leads into said engine compartment of the vehicle and that is adapted to receive the nozzle of a fire-extinguisher, upon desired temporary passage through the opening into said engine compartment with extinguishants .

In the context of motor vehicles, such as, e.g., buses, lorries and private cars, a plurality of fires have broken out in the engine compartment of the respective vehicle. It is usual to provide permanent extinguishing systems in the engine compartment of great and expensive vehicles and in racing cars, but it has turned out that these permanent extinguishing systems many times have been inadequate, which has resulted in the entire engine and in many cases also the entire vehicle having burnt out before the fire could be extinguished. Among other things, spraying pipes for fuel may, for different reasons, crack and in that connection cause leakage of fuel against the frequently very warm turbo, exhaust pipe, generators, etc., and with a fire as a consequence. In order to be able to reach the seat of fire from outside and spray with a supplementary loose dry-powder or foam extinguisher, first of all it has been required to manually open into the engine by, on that occasion, turning away and open an engine door or another bonnet, which has entailed danger to the staff that carried out this measure. In that connection, by opening into the seat of fire, oxygen has been supplied, which then makes that the intensity of the fire increases rapidly and, in that

connection, the fire also spreads with danger since the flames then flare up and may hurt the staff trying to extinguish the fire and also to passengers who not yet have had time to be evacuated from the vehicle. The problem that the system known by US

3,972,373 A intends to solve is to be able to connect an extinguisher to a sprinkler system via a quick-coupling from within a vehicle that has the engine positioned in front, and thereby be able to extinguish a possible engine fire safely. First, however, this requires an advanced piping in the engine compartment and that the connection between the pipes and an extinguisher protrudes from said engine compartment through a case with risk of catching persons thereon upon passage.

The problem that the present invention intends to solve is to be able to provide a device that upon fire in the engine of buses and other larger vehicles, where the engine normally is situated at the rear of the vehicle and is accessible from outside via openable doors, etc., or the risk of fire therein, allows quick injection of intended extinguishants in the form of, e.g., dry powder, foam or water in the engine compartment in order to suffocate the fire. In that connection, it is important that the opening is safe.

It is important that it should be possible to use the extinguisher quickly and, in that connection, be able to insert the nozzle therefor into the proper fire without any risk for the operator of the extinguisher and that the fire hurts persons outside the vehicle. This has happened when drivers previously have tried to extinguish engine fires and opened up the door into the engine, with the consequence that rapid supply of oxygen to the fire has occurred and the flames then have flared up and hurt the driver who has tried to spray- extinguishing medium on the fire.

It is important that the opening is constructed in such a way that no projecting parts from the same are present that may hurt people by getting caught on or impact when the vehicle, such as, e.g., a bus, is driven in areas of high population density.

Therefore, the main object of the present invention is primarily to solve, among others, said problems by simple and safely working means.

Said object is attained by means of a device according to the present invention, which substantially is characterized in that, easily accessible from the outside of the vehicle, the opening is arranged to be closed externally of said vehicle by a temporary seal, which is formed by a flexible part, having a plurality of turnable tongues of rubber or plas- tic distributed along the circumference of said opening and arranged to be possible to break through or open, said opening being situated substantially right opposite the fire-hazardous parts of the engine such as, e.g., turbo, exhaust pipe, fuel pipe, etc. The invention is described below in the form of a preferred embodiment example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which

Fig. 1 shows an example of the arrangement of an emergency-extinguishing opening according to the invention, Figs. 2-3 show an opening on a lateral door to the engine compartment of a bus,

Fig. 4 shows an opening on a rear positioned door to the engine compartment of a bus,

Fig. 5 shows the interior of the engine com- partment with the engine and fire-hazardous parts connected thereto, and

Fig. 6 shows an extinguisher according to the function of the invention.

A device 1 at a motor vehicle 2, comprising an engine compartment 3 having an engine 4 received therein that is driven by flammable fuel, such as, e.g., petrol, gas or die- sel, and which engine compartment 3 is arranged to be contained in and surrounded by a protecting casing 5, comprises an opening 6. More precisely, an opening 6 is arranged, which is easily accessible from the outside 7 of the vehicle and which leads into the engine compartment 3 of the vehicle and which is arranged to be adapted to receive the nozzle 8 of a supplemen- tary fire-extinguisher 9 externally of said vehicle 2. Said opening 6 is arranged to be able to be closed by a temporary seal 10 during normal use of the vehicle 2, which seal is arranged to be possible to break through easily or in another way be possible to open upon desired temporary passage through the opening 6 into said engine compartment 3 with intended suitable extinguishants 11, e.g., dry powder or foam, in order to suffocate the fire. According to the invention, said opening 6 is positioned substantially right opposite the fire-hazardous parts 12, 13, 14, of the engine, such as, e.g., the turbo 12, exhaust pipe 13, fuel pipe 14, etc.

Said opening 6 is preferably arranged in a fixedly mounted cover plate 15 and is covered by a cap or another temporary seal 10 that seals said opening 6 but simultaneously makes it easy to be able to insert the extinguisher nozzle 7 through the opening 6 at the extinguishing occasion without having to manually open the engine door/bonnet or dismount other chassis portions with time delay caused thereby and supply of oxygen that increases the intensity at the seat of fire and the spread thereof with danger to those involved, particu- larly to those trying to spray by an extinguisher thereon.

Said seal 10 is formed by a flexible part, such as a number of turnable tongues 1OA, 1OB, 1OC, 10D. A plurality of turnable tongues 10A-10D are distributed along the circum-

ference of said opening 6 and such an arranged cap is composed of rubber or plastic and is provided with a number of slots 15 extending through at least one portion of said cap 10. Preferably, a cross-shaped slot 16 extends through the cap, which is formed by a membrane 10.

In order to be able to see easily where a said opening 6 and the appurtenant cap 10 is situated on the vehicle 2, around the opening 6, an area is marked by a colour 17 differing from the ordinary colour 18 of the vehicle. Said differ- ing colour is suitably fluorescent or luminous in another manner, e.g., orange, red or white, and that a text 19 is present at said opening 6 that informs about where the position of said emergency extinguishing opening 6 is arranged.

Suitably, said opening 6, or the openings if several of such openings are concerned, is/are arranged in an openable door 20, bonnet or another similar turnably mounted part of the vehicle 2.

The function of the invention should have been understood from the description above and by means of the accompanying drawings, but briefly it may be mentioned that preferably the opening 6 is uncovered from the closing cap 10 by means of the nozzle 8 of the fire extinguisher 9, so that the nozzle 8 can be inserted into the interior of the engine compartment 3 in order to be able to spray dry powder 11, etc., on the seat of fire 21 and suffocate the same without supplying additional oxygen to the fire and for the protection of the staff who holds the fire extinguisher 9.

Naturally, the invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the accompanying drawings . Modifications are feasible, particularly as for the nature of the different parts, or by using an equivalent technique, without departing from the protection area of the invention, such as it is defined in the claims.