Fire Foam Tests

Fire foam quality and regulatory tests for ships, airports, industry and other large fire control systems.

Intertek fire foam quality testing, helps to ensure clients have the correct grade of fire fighting foam in their fire control systems. Fire-fighting foam tests meet compliance for the IMO and other industrial and national quality and regulatory standards for fire fighting equipment. Client fire foam samples are easily shipped to the foam testing laboratories, with testing usually occurring within 24 hours for rapid results.

Fire foam testing includes:

• Appearance, visual
• pH, ASTM D1293, EN 1568  
• Density, ASTM D4052  
• Viscosity ISO 3104, sediment EN 1568-C
• Drainage time, EN 1568-G
• Expansion ratio, EN 1568-G
• Fire test performance, "burn back test", EN 1568-I 
• Refractive index, ISO 5561
• Refractive index, ASTM D1218, ISO 5661
• Resistance to polar solvents
• Solution concentration
• Pour Point ASTM D5950 
• Cloud point ASTM D5773  
• Freeze-point
• Surface tension, ISO 304, ASTM D-971
• Temperature conditioning, EN 1568-H
• Conclusions: Determination of foam type or grade 

Types of Fire Foams:

• Protein foam concentrates (P). Liquids derived from hydrolysed protein materials.
• Fluoroprotein foam concentrates (FP). Protein concentrates with added fluorinated surface active agents.
• Synthetic foam concentrates (S). Mixtures of hydrocarbon surface-active agents, and can contain fluorinated surface-active agents with additional stabilisers.
• Alcohol resistant foam concentrates (AR). Suitable for use on hydrocarbon fuels, and are resistant to breakdown when applied to the surface of water-miscible liquid fuels. Some alcohol resistant foam concentrates precipitate a polymeric membrane on the surface of alcohol.
• Aqueous film-forming foam concentrates (AFFF). Mixtures of hydrocarbon surfactants and fluorinated surface active agents, forming an aqueous film on the surface of some hydrocarbon fuels.
• Film-forming fluoroprotein foam concentrates (FFFP). Fluoroprotein foam concentrates form an aqueous film on the surface of some hydrocarbon fuels.

Fire fighting foams analysis and testing:

Fire foam samples are easily shipped to Intertek's United Arab Emirates laboratory and Belgium Chemical and Petroleum Testing laboratory for prompt testing and reporting.

• Fire Fighting Foam Testing
• Fire and Explosion Forensic Investigation