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Diamond - Z 4000 fire story

Tony Wells

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2019
Messages
635
Location
Tyler, TX
Occupation
HogZilla Keeper
I guess it's a toss up. If there was a truly effective a suppression system, D-Z may have put one on. But I would definitely agree that, especially the dry chemical type would never get to the bottom of the burning pile. And as long as there was a heat source, re-ignition would seem likely after the one shot system did its thing. In that case, it's just wasted money and effort. If it were practical and legal, provided the ignition source could be contained, a giant Halon system might work. I've been around them in large data centers, but they are all enclosed and atmosphere controlled. Halon isn't even allowed these days, if memory serves. Just a thought.

John, off that list, but added to it, is a compressor so the operator can do just that. I have a couple, but they are gas powered and I am averse to having gasoline around this place. Everything is diesel. I think I have one more Yanmar single cylinder diesel on hand. Our Hogzilla and the Morbarks tubs have a compressor for that, and one has a Yanmar powering it and the other hydraulic, which I don't care for. At one time I found a couple of old timers who had invested in a lot of Yanmar clones, and then the EPA shut down importing them and I bought 4. I should have bought several more. They are identical, same factory. But because these two guys were out of business, they were selling way cheap. Those genuine Yanmars aren't cheap. Compressed air seems to be better on the tubs than the horizontals, but keeping the chips clear is paramount. That and fixing leaks. I feel like this was near 100% preventable. Just a bad combination of things came together.

The way the frame and all the sheet metal is put together on this D-Z, it's hard to keep clean. It's a fine grinder, but it does have a catch or two. We're going to try to add some deflectors and try and change the direction of the chips flung out of the mill. I worked on a Bandit 3680 today that has the feed belt and sprockets so worn the chain hangs in the teeth as it rounds the bottom and tries to climb back up for another round, which of course it can't do. The belt tightens up and it locks. I took a couple of covers off and the whole thing is stuffed with cardboard fines. Would be very easy to ignite. Tried to take a little slack out of the belt to make sure it couldn't stick in the drive teeth, but it only made a little difference. The mechanics are going to tear it down and replace the front sprocket at least. It's got the wrong mill in it for wood, so it isn't even close to the D-Z, but it's the next in line on the lot to try and keep grinding while the D-Z is down. Couple of pinches of regrind and the belt hangs and has to be backed away manually. No radio on this one.
 

Nige

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
28,984
Location
G..G..G..Granville.........!! Fetch your cloth.
If there was a truly effective a suppression system, D-Z may have put one on.
Nope. No manufacturer wants to get involved with the potential legal liability if a machine burns to the ground and the installed fire suppression system failed to prevent it.

The best you can hope for from an equipment manufacturer is that they provide a designated strengthened area to mount the chemical agent tanks and have provisions in their electrical/electronic systems (e.g. the engine shutdown I mentioned before) to tie the fire system controls into. As an example it took Cat over 20 years to provide areas on their machines to install fire systems.

Any large customer I ever came across was completely hands-off as far as fire systems were concerned. They were installed at the time of machine assembly and, most importantly, maintained by the installing manufacturer's representative agent who were legally in the frame if at any time the fire system failed to function as intended. On large job sites the fire suppression company would have people on site 24/7 carrying out system maintenance and attending any call-outs. Any machine with a non-functional fire system was classed as out of service.

Today's methodology is a combined wet/dry system. The theory is that the dry agent puts out the fire, then the wet agent cools things down and prevents re-ignition.
 

Tony Wells

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2019
Messages
635
Location
Tyler, TX
Occupation
HogZilla Keeper
See post #9. The machine was hauled back to us yesterday, Friday the 12 of February. Wish I had found a few takers for my wager. Next week we will see what is left to repair. D-Z was able to furnish an engine harness, but not a machine harness. Oddly, they only had microfiche schematics for the machine harness and told the guys I sent it to they could not in good conscience send an illegible copy. As it happens, I have a perfectly usable copy. According to my engine guys, their opinion is that very little of the control wiring was damaged and they feel reasonably confident they were able to repair the machine harness. The engine is repaired and passed all tests. New hydraulic hoses where needed. I didn't send the radio with it, and they don't know how to operate it anyway, so I just had it moved back where we will test it out and see. Maybe not much is damaged. It came in late, so I didn't spend much time looking at it, but I did see a bit of stray single wires just strung across the machine, so there is definitely work to do, but hopefully not too much.
 
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