Wed, Jul 27, 2005
Components May Help You Handle An Engine Fire
If you are unfortunate
enough to experience an engine fire in your single-engine aircraft,
what would you rather have aluminum or stainless steel protecting
you from the flames? The team at EPM.AV Corporation makes a very
convincing case for the latter, and has manufactured a series of
inexpensive Firewall Penetration Seal Kits made from stainless
steel.
"Our goal in the development of this line of products is to buy
you a little extra time to get the fuel shut off and get back on
the ground in the unfortunate event of engine fire," said a
spokesman for the company.
According to company vice president Paul Bowmar, the issue of
heat protection stemmed from the teams' experience while building
an RV6-A. As they assembled the firewall, they questioned the
protection offered from the aluminum components supplied to seal
the firewall. Windblown avgas, for example, burns at 1800 degrees
F; aluminum melts at 1200 degrees F.
To test their theory the team fabricated a duplicate heater
bypass valve from stainless steel, which has a melting point of
2200 degrees F. Next, they pointed a propane-fed weed burner,
running at around 1875 degrees F, directly at a mock firewall using
the stainless steel valve. While the stainless piece glowed red and
scaled, it withstood ten minutes at temperatures of 1800 degrees
F.
Next, the team mounted an aluminum bypass valve on the mock
firewall, and repeated the weed burner test. After just 16 seconds,
the flames had melted away the aluminum piece, and flames were
shooting through the resulting two-inch hole.
The stainless steel kits are available in three different sizes,
to fit a variety of applications.
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