2019 MAY 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Engineering Business Daily -- Hale Products Inc. (Collegeville, Pennsylvania, United States) has been issued patent number 10,286,237, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Laskaris, Michael A. (Collegeville, PA); Smith, Alan (Ocala, FL).

This patent was filed on April 22, 2015 and was published online on May 27, 2019.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “This invention generally relates to improving fire suppression systems and techniques and, more particularly, to integrated controls for a fire truck water pump and/or a drive transmission for a fire truck to reduce the occurrence of human error and to improve the efficiency of extinguishing fires.

“Fortunately, over the past 20-30 years, the total number of structural fires per year has declined. However, the total number of firefighter deaths and the amount of money lost as a result of fires has not experienced the same decline. In fact, approximately the same number of firefighters die per 100,000 structural fires currently as in years past. As there may be many reasons for this increase in firefighter casualties, one cited problem is a lack of real world experience for firefighters due to fewer occurrences of fires. While increasing the frequency of training is, of course, part of the solution, additional training alone will probably not solve all of these problems. Training inexperienced firefighters on emergency procedures and operations does not truly mimic the urgent, often confused and conflicting information present at an evolving emergency scene.

“At a typical fire, quick and efficient pump and foam system operations are a necessity and are not something to be left to chance, particularly in view of the real possibility of human error. Unfortunately, human error is most likely to occur when time is most critical, that is when the fire truck first arrives at the scene of the fire and the pump must be set up. Another factor in the effectiveness of fire suppression is that the size of fire-fighting crews has been noticeably downsized in recent years, due in part to economic conditions. In some areas, fire-fighting crews that previously included 4, 5 or 6 firefighters have been reduced to only 2 or 3 individuals in recent years. Due to such manpower decreases, each firefighter must be as effective and as efficient as possible. It is often the case that the initial actions of the fire-fighting crew on the scene of a fire can determine the entire success or failure of the operation. Therefore, removing non-value added tasks and the associated opportunities for defect or error can be a real improvement in the effectiveness of firefighters.

“Conventional fire trucks or other fire suppression systems include a fire pump panel that allows a firefighter to select the exact system parameters for which to fight the fire, such as pump speed and pressure, foam type and foam-to-water ratio. In operation, the firefighter is required to independently select the pump pressure or speed, then independently select the foam type, turn the foam on to release the foam into the water flow, and finally select the desired foam percentage in relation to the water flow. As is well known by those skilled in the art, this process can be relatively time consuming in an emergency and may prevent the firefighter from focusing on more critical needs. Also, this multiple selection process provides an opportunity for human error in selecting the wrong operating settings, especially if the firefighter is relatively inexperienced and is facing high stress due to the emergency situation.

“While industry testing and anecdotal experience has shown that foam and a compressed air foam system (CAFS) shorten fire suppression times and can decrease water usage and physical stress on firefighters, the increased workload at the pump operator panel can be problematic. For instance, compressed air foam streams that are inappropriately adjusted at the pump operator panel can be less effective, and can even place the fire suppression team at greater risk if the output fire suppression stream has too little water content. Accordingly, the set up and operation of firefighting systems on a fire truck may be a source of error or problems that can have an impact on fire suppression and operator safety.

“Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional pump control panel for fire suppression systems, generally designated 61 is shown. With such conventional pump controls the user or firefighter specifically select at least three separate parameters before beginning to extinguish the fire. For example, the conventional pump control panel 61 may include a pump pressure/speed selector 60, a separate foam type selector 62, a separate foam on/off switch 64, and a separate foam percentage selector 66. As discussed above, the process of choosing the appropriate parameters can be complicated and time consuming for firefighters during an emergency. In some instances, firefighters may completely forget to select a certain parameter, such as activating the foam on/off switch 64, resulting in a very inefficient and unproductive fire suppression technique. Alternatively, a user or operator may inadvertently select the wrong combination of water and foam flow, thus needlessly jeopardizing his or her own health and safety and the health and safety of others. Further, countless hours are invested each year into teaching firefighters to quickly and accurately select the appropriate parameters for a given fire. However, despite this investment, firefighters continue to erroneously select the proper settings. Further, when compressed air systems are added to the foam system to create compressed air foam, which has been shown to be more effective at extinguishing fires than foam systems, operation of the system becomes even more complex because the operator must determine whether air injection should be on or off and must make wet vs. dry adjustments.

“Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a firefighter with the opportunity to chose from at least two predetermined established conditions of flow and pressure for the water and foam to meet the specific requirements of each fire by a one-touch activated sequence.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Briefly stated, the present invention is directed to an integrated operator interface for a fire suppression system. The fire suppression system includes an engine, a water source, a water pump, a foam system and a compressed air system. The integrated operator interface includes a control panel including a plurality of one-touch activation controls. Each one-touch activation control is configured to cause the output of a predetermined fire suppression fluid from the fire suppression system and cause a predetermined increase in engine speed resulting in an associated increase in water pump pressure. The predetermined fire suppression fluid comprising a predetermined flow of water, a predetermined type of foamant, a predetermined concentration of the predetermined type of foamant, and a predetermined flow of compressed air.

“In a further aspect, the present invention is directed to a fire suppression system comprising a foam proportioning system that includes at least two types of chemical foamants, a selector valve for selecting one of the at least two types of chemical foamants, a foam pump in fluid communication with the selector valve for supplying the selected chemical foamant to a discharge unit, and a foam controller operatively connected to the foam pump and the selector valve. The fire suppression system further comprises a water source connected to the foam proportioning system for mixing water with the selected chemical foamant to form a foamant mixture, a compressor system including an air compressor and an air ratio control throttling valve, and a system controller operatively connected to the foam proportioning system, water source and air compressor. The compressor system is configured to inject compressed air into the foamant mixture for forming a predetermined compressed air fire suppression fluid composition. The system controller includes a one-touch activation control for activating (i) the foam controller to configure the foam pump and the selector valve, (ii) the compressor system to configure the air ratio control throttling valve, and (iii) the water source to provide a predetermined water flow, in order to establish the predetermined compressed air fire suppression fluid composition.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“We claim:

“1. A fire suppression system comprising: a foam proportioning system that includes: at least two types of chemical foamants, a selector valve for selecting one of the at least two types of chemical foamants, a foam pump in fluid communication with the selector valve for supplying the selected chemical foamant to a discharge unit, and a foam controller operatively connected to the foam pump and the selector valve; a water source connected to the foam proportioning system for mixing water with the selected chemical foamant to form a foamant mixture; a water pump in fluid communication with the water source; a compressor system including an air compressor, an intake throttling valve and an air ratio control throttling valve, the compressor system being configured to inject compressed air into the foamant mixture for forming a predetermined compressed air fire suppression fluid composition; an engine; and a system controller operatively connected to the foam proportioning system, the water pump, the air compressor and the engine, the system controller including a one-touch activation control for (a) activating (i) the foam controller to configure the foam pump and the selector valve, (ii) the compressor system to configure the air ratio control throttling valve, and (iii) the water pump to provide a predetermined water flow, in order to establish the predetermined compressed air fire suppression fluid composition, and (b) causing a predetermined increase in engine speed resulting in an associated increase in water pump pressure.

“2. The fire suppression system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined compressed air fire suppression fluid composition is established to suppress a fire type selected from the group consisting of a trash/brush fire, a structural fire, a car fire, a flammable hydrocarbon liquid fire, a flammable polar solvent fire, and an exposure fire.

“3. The fire suppression system of claim 2, wherein the predetermined compressed air fire suppression fluid composition comprises a predetermined flow of water, a predetermined type of foamant, a predetermined concentration of the predetermined type of foamant, and a predetermined flow of compressed air.

“4. The fire suppression system of claim 1, wherein the one-touch activation control includes a symbol that corresponds to the predetermined compressed air fire suppression fluid composition that is established to suppress a fire type selected from the group consisting of a trash/brush fire, a structural fire, a car fire, a flammable hydrocarbon liquid fire, a flammable polar solvent fire, and an exposure fire.

“5. The fire suppression system of claim 4, wherein the symbol is selected from the group consisting of a trash can, a fuel station, a flame, an automobile, a building, and an exposure.

“6. The fire suppression system of claim 2, wherein the controller includes a plurality of one-touch activation controls, each one-touch activation control having a symbol that corresponds to a fire type selected from the group consisting of a trash/brush fire, a structural fire, a car fire, a flammable hydrocarbon liquid fire, a flammable polar solvent fire, and an exposure fire.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Laskaris, Michael A.; Smith, Alan. Integrated Controls For A Fire Suppression System. U.S. Patent Number 10,286,237, filed April 22, 2015, and published online on May 27, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,286,237.PN.&OS=PN/10,286,237RS=PN/10,286,237

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