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The Brigade has a team of members focussed on reserach and development looking at a variety of new technologies, products and servcies that might help in Brigade operations and service to the community. Generally these trials need to be approved by QFRS management; especially where a potential change to standard operating practice or appliance set-up is involved. It is the Brigade's aspiration that successful solutions will be communicated to other Brigades around the state. To learn more about our Research and Development Projects, please Click Here.

High Pressure Pump / Motor System Trials

The Brigade has been trialling high pressure pump systems for a number of years now. For rural fire fighting, diaphragm pumps are needed to handle water with inconsistent quality. Early IZone appliances (Yankees) in the Urban fleet had piston driven high pressure pump systems which performed well but had higher maintenance issues; especially if utilised with water containing grit.

The Brigade investigated newer systems with high pressure diaphragm pumps which are more forgiving with water quality. Combined with a smaller 12mm rubber hose on one reel stand for long distance fire attack (up to 100m) and a special nozzle, this solution is ideal on low intensity, hard to reach fires. The high pressure jet of water pushes through thick or matted grass, knocks burning bark off trees, reaches high burning trees, blasts a bare earth break and generally extinguishes vegetation fires better than standard pressure systems. The other advantage is a significant reduction in water usage which means the appliance can remain active in the field a lot longer. The brigade has installed self winding, self guiding hose reel stands onto both our Medium appliances thanks to donations from the public.

 

RV51 has the most recently installed trial system (in 2011) and features a Quikcorp solution that utilises a 6HP Diesel motor and Bertolini Pump. The pump puts out water at 400kPa and can throw a stream to over 20 metres. The pump (and main appliance pump) are connected to the main truck fuel tank and a panel arrangement has been installed to block noise from the operator and allow them to stand beside the truck instead of behind the truck out of sight of the driver. The operator can control both pump motors from that location which also reduces the risk of being impacted by traffic from the rear in smokey conditions. An alarm and light activate if the truck tank reaches 25% capacity.

On RV52, the Brigade has been trialling a 6.5HP petrol motor driving a small Comet (Silvan) pump system since early 2008. This solution is mounted on a platform over the foam tank. This solution has served the Brigade well through several fire seasons as well as in the clean-up efforts following the floods of 2011. It is smaller than the Bertolini System and has reduced capabilities.

There are other trials occuring around the state and the Brigade plans to share it's findings with the Projects Team at QFRS looking at all aspects of the operation and maintenance of these high pressure pump systems with the view ultimately for QFRS to allow high pressure pump systems to be an optional extra for rural brigades to install if it suits their requirements and budgets.

Working with Fire.

Working with Flood Clean-up.

 

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