TRANSPORTABLE IMPULSE FIRE EXTINGUISHING SYSTEM

Description

The present invention relates to a transportable impulse fire extinguishing system, apt to be mounted on a vehicle and capable of projecting extinguish agent impulses on a fire, e.g. water, in the form of atomized particles.

It uses one or more barrelled nozzles, similar to small cannons, for projecting the extinguish agent, and it is operated through a trigger by an operator.

An impulse system similar to the above mentioned one is described in the German Utility Model No. DE29917902U to IFEX. An high pressure air impulse is used in it for atomizing an amount of water and to convey it towards a fire. Water atomization, reducing the water to lOílOO μm sized particles, increases even a hundredfold the effectiveness of water or of other extinguish agents. In this way, even a small amount of water could be used for extinguishing fires and the system could be easily carried on a fire vehicles, e.g. even helicopters which, on the contrary, would be hardly capable of carrying large amounts of water and they should discharge it in the lump.

On the contrary, with an impulse system, it is possible to project more extinguish agent charges on a fire.

Nevertheless, the effectiveness of this kind of

fire extinguish system is connected to the manoeuvrability of the vehicle carrying it, which should approach a fire laterally, while remaining at safe distance and maintaining anyhow a quick escape route in case the fire generates sudden explosions or flame bursts.

A vehicle such as a helicopter must execute difficult pointing manoeuvres for allowing the operator to project extinguish impulses on the fire, above all in case of poor manoeuvrability conditions, such as e.g. in flying zones between facing buildings.

These manoeuvres, as it could be clearly understood, require a certain manoeuvring space, which is not always available, and they limit quick escape possibility. This limits the effectiveness and thus the diffusion of this kind of systems.

Similar considerations could be if the system were mounted on ground vehicles. The technical problem underlying the present invention is to provide a fire extinguish system allowing to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks. Such problem is solved by a fire extinguish system as mentioned above, characterized in that it comprises:

♦ means for training said one or more nozzles and adjusting the back sight thereof;

• an infrared image detecting system, comprising

one or more thermographic cameras;

• electronic processing means connected to said detecting system, capable of processing signals provided by said one or more thermographic cameras for establishing coordinates of a fire hottest point, for subsequently converting them in target angular coordinates;

• positioning control means of said one or more nozzles, operating on said means for training said one or more nozzles and adjusting the back sight thereof, and providing a framed target signal.

Here and in the following, control means will indicate that means adjusting the nozzles' position and speed by means of suitable actuators.

The main advantage of the fire extinguish system according to the present invention lies in that it allows an automatic pointing operation independently from the manoeuvre of the vehicle carrying the fire extinguish system, which could therefore remain in an optimal position in terms of safety.

Moreover, said framed target signal could be used by an operator operating the system trigger, or by automatic shooting means, possibly shooting extinguish agent impulses in form of a burst. Accordingly, operator workload is reduced, in particular for the vehicle' s pilot who is

manoeuvring the latter, with a clear improvement of the overall safety conditions and of the extinguishing effectiveness.

The present invention will be hereby described according to a preferred exemplificative embodiment thereof, given by way of a non-limiting example, with reference to the annexed figures, wherein:

* figure 1 shows a partially exploded perspective view of a fire extinguish system according to the invention;

* figure 2 shows a side view of system of figure 1;

* figures 3A and 3B show perspective views of the system of figure 1, showing the nozzles motion of the fire extinguish system of figure 1, from an operative position to a resting position.

* figures 4 and 5 show the assembly and the use of the system of figure 1 on a helicopter;

* figure 6 shows the motion which is overall available to the barrelled nozzles of the system of figure 1; and

* figure 7 shows a block diagram showing the operation of the system of figure 1.

With reference to the figures, an impulses fire extinguish system is overall shown with the reference number 1.

It is transportable, apt to be mounted on a vehicle and capable of projecting extinguish agent impulses in the form of atomized particles on a fire.

With extinguish agent it is meant a fire extinguish liquid which could be water, in its most simple but also least effective form. Addictives could be added to water for improving the extinguish effectiveness, e.g. agents for providing a patina on structures in flames which can take oxygen out of the flames and thus choke the fire.

Said system 1 uses a pair of barrelled nozzles 2, similar to small cannons, for projecting the extinguish agent, and it is operated through trigger by an operator (not shown) . The system 1 shape allows to place it easily underneath the underside of a helicopter H (figures 4 and 5) , fixed to its barycentric hook and stabilized with suitable dockings 6 on the helicopter's skids P. The system 1 comprises a frame 3, to be placed underneath said underside, laterally supporting two tubular tanks 4. Also, it frontally supports a joint 5 for providing training movements, i.e. rotation about an azimuthal or vertical axis, and for the nozzles 2 back sight adjusting, also known on the whole as dual cannon, for its water jet.

Said joint 5 and respective actuators represent means for training said one or more nozzles 2 and adjusting the back sight thereof.

The system on the whole is formed by a frame, capable of assuming a withdrawn position and an extended one along the vertical axis, i.e. perpendicular to ground. The system, which is self- moving on wheels, is attached to the barycentric hook and to skids in its withdrawn position.

Before mission, a pneumatic actuator places it in the extended position, so as to lower it underneath the skids. Then, two electrical motors could provide the elevation and training angular motion.

The fire extinguish system further comprises one or more thermographic cameras (not shown), i.e. digital video cameras sensitive to infrared radiations, representing an infrared image detecting system. Said thermographic cameras could be placed on board vehicle or directly on the fire extinguish system 1, in the most appropriate position in order to achieve an optimal images detection around the vehicle. Said system 1 further comprises electronic processing means connected to said infrared images detecting system.

The purpose of said processing means is to process signals provided from said one or more thermographic cameras to establish the a fire hottest point coordinates, for subsequently converting them into target angular coordinates.

Finally, the system 1 comprises positioning control means of said nozzles 2, acting on said means for

training said one or more nozzles 2 and adjusting the back sight thereof, providing a framed target signal visible to an operator or inputted to an automatic shooting system. With reference to figure 7, it is shown a block diagram showing the operation of the nozzles 2 motion system on the whole.

The thermographic cameras acquire images in the infrared spectral field (A) . Following an approval command, a proper module analyzes and processes the image, detecting the brightest point in the infrared field, i.e. the highest temperature point, corresponding to a flame

(B) . Then, the conversion module calculates the rotation angles form the pixel position in the image plane

(C) .

Successively, the actuators control means receives the vertical and horizontal displacement rotation degrees, and operates the actuators 7 next to said joint 5 so as to move the nozzles 2 to the desired position (D) .

With reference to figures 3A and 3B, it is described a possible movement from a resting state (Fig. 3A) to an operative state (Fig. 3B), by means of said rotational joint 5 placed on the frame 2.

Figure 6 shows the motion of a configuration wherein the degrees of freedom are represented by

azimuthal training and elevation.

Accordingly, the above described fire extinguish system allows an automatic pointing of a water cannon towards the fire thermal epicentre. Such automatic pointing is based on the instrumental detecting of the fire hottest point, obtained by means of a group of infrared sensitive thermographic cameras.

The dual cannon motion for extinguishing the fire is achieved by means of electromechanical actuators 7, capable of providing rotations about any direction in the space to the dual cannon, for pointing it to the desired position.

A data processor with a specific software analyzes the images sent by the thermographic cameras, detects the fire hottest point, determines the spatial coordinates thereof and generates instructions to be sent to the electromechanical actuators for pointing the extinguish cannon towards said point.

The detection of the hottest point is obtained in the present invention by means of analyzing the operative scenery in the infrared field. The analysis of such scenery in the infrared field is performed by using thermographic cameras (A) .

The peculiarity of images provided by thermographic cameras consist in returning a representation of the framed scenery wherein the colouring is index- linked according to the temperature of the framed

objects: the image brightness is directly proportional to the temperature of the framed object .

Therefore, the operative scenery hottest point is located in the present invention by searching the brightest points in the acquired images by means of the thermographic cameras.

When the thermographic cameras frames the relevant scenery, the acquired image is processed by an electronic data processor locating the brightest point. The position of this pixel within the image is transformed into a precise spatial position by a proper conversion system, allowing to associate an unique spatial position to each single pixel. In general, in the embodiment of the system according to the invention, there are no limitations regarding the kind and number of thermographic cameras used: any kind and any number of thermographic camera for infrared images acquisition can be used.

Preferably, the thermographic cameras measuring range could be comprised between -40 ⁰ C and +500 ⁰ C, extending to 2000 ⁰ C.

One clear advantage of the invention is connected to the use of a detecting system based on the analysis made from the images provided by thermographic cameras, allowing a clean vision and, as a consequence, a precise pointing even in complex sceneries.

In general, in the embodiment of the system according to the invention, there are no limitations regarding the electronic components choices for managing and processing the acquired signals: any electronic component used for per managing signals deriving from infrared detection can be used.

A further advantage of the invention is the possibility of managing and processing data acquired by the thermographic camera by means of a suitably developed software.

In general, in the embodiment of the system according to the invention, there are no limitations regarding the kind and number of actuators used: any kind and any number of actuator can be used for moving the cannon so that it points towards the desired direction. Preferably, the actuators could be of the electromechanical type and in particular they could comprise brushless motors and planetary reduction gearing with helical gears .

A great advantage of the invention is the complete independency between the extinguishing operation and the operation of helicopter piloting, that is allowed by the computerization of the entire system.

In fact, the operator can manually operate the nozzles 2 by means of the trigger, or he can leave this function to an automatic system, activating upon location of a burning fire representative

point, without excluding the possibility for the operator to resume the operation control.

When used underneath the underside of a helicopter and underneath the skids P, training movements do not meet any obstacle.

Moreover, further means for withdrawing the entire system in a position next to the helicopter underside, between skids P, could be provided, so as not to cause any problem during landing, thus switching from an operative position to a non- operative one.

To the above-described fire extinguish system a person skilled in the art, in order to satisfy further and contingent needs, could effect several further modifications and variants, all however encompassed in the protective scope of the present invention, as defined by the appended claims.